Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On the morning of February 14, Beijing time, Amazon's self-driving car company Zoox said on Monday that it had successfully tested an Robotaxi with employees as passengers on public roads, bringing the company closer to its goal of providing commercial services to the public. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos sent his best wishes on social media.

The test was conducted on February 11 between two buildings at Zoox's headquarters in Foster City, Calif., a mile apart. The test is part of the company's launch of a free employee shuttle service, which will also help the company improve its technology.

Aicha Evans, chief executive, said: "keeping cars on open public roads and validating ways to meet all the different requirements, including regulation, is a big step and we will not do so unless we are already considering commercialisation internally."

Evans declined to provide a timetable for commercial use because it would require additional government permission.

The industry's self-driving car sector has not been launched as quickly as initially expected because the technology has proved difficult to master. Ford and Volkswagen announced last fall that they would shut down Argo's artificial intelligence self-driving division and focus instead on assisted driving technology that provides more direct returns.

GM's Cruise and Alphabet's Waymo are still developing the technology.

Zoox's Robotaxi is a fully self-driving car built from scratch, rather than a modification of an existing self-driving car, which has no steering wheel or pedals and can accommodate four passengers, two of whom sit face to face.

Online retailer Amazon has been aggressively expanding into self-driving technology, buying Zoox for $1.3 billion in 2020.

But rapid interest rate hikes and weak consumer demand have raised fears of a global recession, forcing many companies, including automakers and technology giants, to cut jobs and cut costs.

Jesse Levinson, head of technology at Zoox, says the company has been cautious about its growth, but is still on track to reach 2500 employees this year, up from fewer than 2000 at the start of the year.

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