Zoox selects Washington, DC as the next autonomous vehicle test

The Amazon-owned zoox will start mapping the Washington streets, DC as it is sewn to start testing self-guiding vehicles in the capital of the nation this year.

Zoox said to a blog On Tuesday that it will start with manually driving toyota Highlanders equipped with the sensors and self-guidance software to map the city. The company plans to start testing its autonomous vehicles (with human security operators behind the steering wheel) later this year.

“With its growing population and high demand for flexible transportation options, the area is an ideal next location and optimum position to start the test and mapping of our technology on the east coast,” the company writes in its blog post.

Zoox will not share details of how many autonomous vehicles will be used for city testing. A spokesman told TechCrunch that the company would start with a small fleet that will grow over time.

Foster City, based in California, has grown far beyond the boundaries of Silicon Valley and the Gulf of San Francisco since its inception in 2014. Today, Zoox is managing hundreds Miami, San Francisco and Seattle. Washington, DC will be the eighth test position.

Zoox is also working to start a Robota commercial service with the growing fleet of customized robbery that does not have traditional steering wheel or pedal controls. The company recently launched a free robot service in Las Vegas, a mooring market where it had offices and conducted testing since 2019. Last November, Zoox began testing custom self-guidance vehicles in San Francisco.

The company ultimately aims to start a romance service in multiple markets. It still needs to meet some regulatory requirements, which include receipt of a federal government exemption for the development of custom vehicles without drivers.

Zoox has made progress on this front: the National Road Traffic Safety Service gave Zoox exemption in August to display its customized robbery on public roads, although it only covers research and demonstrations on public roads. Zoox has since submitted a separate application that will expand the scope and pave the way for the start of a robot service.