Here's How Zoox's Robotaxi Safety Testing Will Work

Last week, Zoox was given federal approval to finally charge customers for robotaxi rides in states that are cool with it. Before that, Zoox was offering free rides, but it recently got a waiver from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to allow it to deploy its bespoke robotaxis in commercial service. Now that it can charge customers, Zoox has released a full testing safety testing framework to ensure rides are as safe as possible moving forward and that its safety practices are transparent. 

Right now, Zoox is only legally allowed to operate with paying customers in Las Vegas, because that's one of the two cities where its pilot program was active, and Nevada is currently the only state that permitted Zoox. 

Zoox's vehicles are little self-driving pods, lacking steering wheels, pedals, and drivers. The little robotaxi picks you up and takes you to your destination all by itself, with no customer supervision required.

Photo by: Zoox

Naturally, there are going to be issues. No system works percectly every time, and there are just too many unknown variables for any computer to handle in real time. Roads are chaotic, and all drivers—human or robot— can struggle with novel situations. So mistakes will be made, which is why Zoox wants to learn from them.  

This safety framework combines three pillars: hardware, software, and operations, so that Zoox can better understand why failures occurred and fix them systemically. Since Zoox wants its cars to be smarter than the average human driver, it needs to know the root causes of problems, not just the problems themselves. 

I find it refreshing that Zoox is being transparent about its safety technology and methodology, rather than hide away and say "trust me, bro," like some other automakers. Will Zoox share the results of this safety testing? That's yet to be seen but this seems like a good place to start. 

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