Zoox Washington selects DC as an independent car that has been tested

Amazon owned Zoox will start appointing the streets of Washington, DC, where it explodes to start testing its self -driving cars in the country’s capital this year.

Zoox said at a blog post on Tuesday that it will start by driving Toyota Highlanders manually equipped with its self -driving sensors and programs to draw a map of the city. The company plans to start testing its independent cars (with human safety operators behind the steering wheel) later this year.

The company wrote in its blog publication: “With the increase in its population and the high demand for flexible transport options, the region is the next perfect location and the perfect place to start testing and planning our technology on the eastern coast,” the company wrote in its blog publication.

Zoox will not share details about the number of independent cars that will be used for testing in the city. A spokesperson for Techcrunch told the company that the company will start with a small fleet that grows over time.

Foster City, California has grown beyond the borders of Silicon Valley and San Francisco Gulf since its foundation in 2014. Today, Zoox runs hundreds of test vehicles on public roads and special test paths in Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, San Francisco, and the country of Seattle. Washington, DC, will be the eighth test site.

Zoox also launches the Robotaxi commercial service through its growing fleet of specially designed robots that lack traditional controls such as steering wheel or pedals. The company recently launched Free robotics service In Las Vegas, the anchor market where he had offices and conducted a test Since 2019. Last November, Zoox started testing its self -driving cars In San Francisco.

The company eventually aims to launch a commercial robotics service in multiple markets. Some regulatory requirements, which include receiving an exemption from the federal government, should still have to deploy their custom -driver vehicles.

Zoox made progress on that front: gave the National Administration for Highway Traffic Safety Animal zoo is exempt In August to show the designed on public roads, although it only covers research and demonstrations on public roads. Zoox has since provided a separate app that expands a range and paves the way for the launch of the Robotaxi commercial service.