School of PE Blog

Self-driving cars have long been a staple of science fiction, but Zoox - a California-based startup - aims to make autonomous urban transportation a reality very soon. Zoox has designed a fully electric, driverless vehicle from the ground up to safely shuttle passengers to their destinations. This robotaxi offers a preview of how we may one day hail a driverless taxi/bus.

Zoox Vehicle Design

Zoox’s vehicle has been designed to have a sleek futuristic look while seating four passengers. Zoox vehicles are able to drive forward and backward with equal capabilities. This is enabled by its four-wheel steering and two sets of identical sensor configurations on both the front and back. With the implementation of AI choreography, Zoox vehicles deftly maneuver in tight spaces by sliding sideways into parking spots, removing the need for three-point turns, backing up, or tricky maneuvers for human drivers. The interior feels roomy and comfortable, with seats facing each other to facilitate conversation. There is no steering wheel, brake pedals, or driver controls inside - it is made to be fully autonomous (Zoox, n.d.).

Autonomous Driving Software

The company has innovated both its vehicle design and the self-driving software powering it: what the Zoox engineers have built is what they have described as an “AI co-pilot” capable of navigating busy and unpredictable urban environments. Zoox's artificial intelligence software. processes the torrent of sensor data. Their programs use deep neural networks - inspired by the human brain - to analyze sensor input and make driving decisions. The AI extracts key information like lanes, signs, lights, objects, and pedestrians. It predicts the behavior of other road users and plans safe, efficient routes and motions second-by-second. Zoox's AI leverages large datasets and simulations to train extensively before testing on public roads (Zoox, n.d.).

Zoox vehicles are studded with sensors to achieve 360-degree perception. This includes cameras, lidars, radars, and ultrasonic sensors. The camera system includes wide field-of-view and telephoto lenses to see objects both close-up and at a distance in high resolution. The lidars bounce lasers off surrounding objects to measure distance with precision day or night. Radars complement this by detecting objects and measuring velocity. Ultrasonic sensors fill in blind spots around the vehicle. Fusing all this sensory input enables sophisticated scene understanding (Zoox, n.d.).

Zoox has fleet coordination in which individual Zoox vehicles will coordinate with the larger fleet for optimal routing. A fleet manager AI will track all of the vehicles' locations and statuses. With that information, it can then assign and reroute vehicles to meet ride demands, avoid congestion, and keep the service running smoothly. All of this will rely on fast vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-cloud communication (Zoox, n.d.).

Envision Consumer Experience

For passengers, the experience aims to be seamless. You simply hail a Zoox robotaxi using their app, get in and fasten your seatbelt, and then input your destination. The vehicle handles the rest - expertly maneuvering streets, obeying traffic laws, avoiding obstacles, and smoothly dropping you off at your destination. Throughout the ride, you can relax and enjoy the journey without the stress of driving yourself.

Potential Societal Impacts

Zoox envisions a world where you do not own a car but simply hail a robotaxi whenever needed. This could allow cities to reclaim parking spaces for more green spaces, bike lanes, and wider sidewalks—and other uses that improve urban life. While you ride in a Zoox, you’re unlikely to get stuck in traffic. With real-time coordination, their fleet aims to optimize routes and keep everything moving efficiently.

The environmental benefits could also be immense. Zoox vehicles are all-electric with zero tailpipe emissions. Large self-driving fleets would drastically reduce the number of cars on the road. Even with electricity generation, experts estimate autonomous ride-hailing could cut greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by over 90%.

Safety

With any autonomous vehicle, safety remains paramount. Zoox is putting their vehicles through rigorous closed-course and public road testing. They are focused on building advanced safety cases, risk assessments, and driver monitoring tools to ensure their system performs at least twice as safely as human drivers before commercializing. Monitoring passengers with onboard cameras not only helps keep them safer but also encourages improved behavior.

In addition to the sensors and AI, Zoox vehicles have safety measures like emergency airbags and a rear-impact crumple zone. Their system architecture is designed for redundancy, with duplicate computers and power sources in case of failures. The vehicles are to undergo rigorous physical testing and crash simulations, ensuring that passengers will be protected from danger (Zoox, n.d.).

The Future with Zoox

Zoox has achieved major autonomous driving testing milestones recently. After securing a driverless testing permit from California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in 2023, their purpose-built robotaxi completed a historic first voyage on public roads without any manual controls or safety drivers. This marked the first time a fully autonomous passenger vehicle designed specifically for ride-hailing navigated open public roads. Zoox also expanded to facilities in Las Vegas, Nevada, and gained approval from the Nevada DMV to test their self-driving robotaxis on public roads there as well. By gaining permits in California and Nevada, Zoox can further validate the autonomous capabilities of their ground-up robotaxi through rigorous real-world piloting. These advances indicate Zoox's progress toward deploying a commercial driverless ride-hailing service in the coming years (Zoox, n.d.).

Conclusion

When might you start seeing bright green and blue Zoox cruisers taxi through your neighborhood? According to them, they hope to launch commercial service in certain cities over the next few years; however, scaling up to widespread availability may require significant time. The technology still has limitations to overcome, regulations to navigate, and public trust to earn, but if this ambitious vision is delivered, then your commute may someday be as simple as hailing your own AI chauffeur.

Zoox provides an exciting glimpse into a possible future that prioritizes mobility efficiency, safety, accessibility, and sustainability over individually owned vehicles. In light of the progress that we have seen so far, this innovative design and well-incorporated artificial intelligence aims to revolutionize how cities move.

References

Zoox. (n.d.). The 'full-stack' behind autonomous driving. Zoox. Retrieved August 8, 2023, from https://zoox.com/autonomy/

Zoox. (n.d.). Get to know our autonomous test fleet. Zoox. Retrieved August 8, 2023, from https://zoox.com/journal/l3-autonomous-fleet/

Zoox. (n.d.). A new bar for safety. Zoox. Retrieved August 8, 2023, from https://zoox.com/safety/

Zoox. (n.d.). Timeline. Zoox. Retrieved August 8, 2023, from https://zoox.com/about/?modal=timeline&stage=2022

Zoox. (n.d.). A to Zoox. Zoox. Retrieved August 8, 2023, from https://zoox.com/journal/atozoox/