Way more than just Waymos in the Autonomous Vehicle world!!
From a press release:
“Zoox is making its way from the West Coast to the East Coast, right to our nation’s capital.
We’re excited to announce the addition of a new city to our testing roadmap: Washington, D.C. As part of our continued growth, this expansion is a strategic step toward bringing safe, sustainable, and autonomous transportation to the nation’s capital and the Mid-Atlantic, paving the way for future deployments in the region.
With the addition of Washington D.C., the Zoox testing fleet is now operating in eight cities, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.
Our first Mid-Atlantic location
As our first Mid-Atlantic testing location, D.C. presents a complex and unique street layout, along with seasonal weather challenges. The city’s street network includes many traffic circles, diagonal avenues, and high pedestrian and bicycle traffic. Additionally, D.C.’s mix of humid summers, occasional snowfall, and unpredictable rainfall creates diverse weather conditions for testing driving performance.
Washington, D.C. ranks among the largest ride-hailing markets in the U.S. and serves as a national hub for government, research, and mobility technology. With its growing population and high demand for flexible transport options, the District is an ideal next location and optimal place to begin testing and mapping our technology on the East Coast.
What comes next
As is standard when we enter a new city, we began by deploying a few vehicles from our Zoox testing fleet, which are retrofitted SUVs equipped with safety drivers, in the heart of Washington D.C. The fleet first starts by manually mapping within the geofence, before progressing to autonomous testing, which will commence later this year.
Zoox recently launched its robotaxi service in Las Vegas, becoming the first company in history to provide a fully driverless ride-hailing service in a purpose-built robotaxi. This launch was a special moment for us. As we continue to expand, we are carefully evaluating and considering potential future locations. In addition to the already well-established public transportation in D.C., we believe our unique robotaxi experience will enhance the way people safely and comfortably ride around the nation’s capital.”
Stay tuned.