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Transportation

Amazon's Zoox Robotaxi Now Giving Rides To Employees On Public Roads In California (cnbc.com) 16

Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle venture Zoox said on Monday that it is now testing its self-driving robotaxis on public roads in California with passengers on board. CNBC reports: The vehicles have no steering wheel or pedals, and they have bidirectional driving capabilities and four-wheel steering, enabling them to change directions without the need to reverse. Zoox executives said the company began the tests after it received approval from the California Department of Motor Vehicles last week.

The permit is not for all public roads in the state. The tests are currently limited to shuttling Zoox employees on a one-mile public route between two office buildings at the company's headquarters in Foster City, California, at speeds up to 35 miles an hour. The company hasn't said how big its test fleet is, but executives have said they have built "dozens" of vehicles, although fewer than 100. Zoox said one of its vehicles completed a test run with employees on board over the weekend.

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Amazon's Zoox Robotaxi Now Giving Rides To Employees On Public Roads In California

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  • by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Monday February 13, 2023 @09:12PM (#63290865)

    35 miles an hour can kill someone and no local override?

    If it get's stuck It needs an remote link?
    and just pulling over may not work in all places / there may not be an spot to pull over. Just coming to an stop as well can be bad to.

    • (Darwin Award) "And the award for Most Ignorant in a Group goes to...The FOMO Generation, for Ain't Got Time For Details..."

      • by dbialac ( 320955 )
        So much room for error. Loss of communications when it's needed is high on that list. Trains on major rail networks have been capable of going solo since the 90s, and yet they don't. Planes can run automatically, and yet there's a pilot and a co-pilot. Related, most plane crashes that are attributed to pilot error aren't what most would call pilot error. The pilot takes over in an emergency situation and has to make drastic recovery maneuvers. If the plane still crashes despite desperate efforts, the way th
        • Trains on major rail networks have been capable of going solo since the 90s, and yet they don't.

          Some do.
          Several cities have fully automatic metro.
          Paris is a widely known example (line 4).
          Closer to where I live Lausanne has one such (line 2).
          But those are completely over-engineered in making them foolproof, and there is still a backup (just one which isn't on premise).

        • ...Planes can run automatically, and yet there's a pilot and a co-pilot. Related, most plane crashes that are attributed to pilot error aren't what most would call pilot error. The pilot takes over in an emergency situation and has to make drastic recovery maneuvers. If the plane still crashes despite desperate efforts, the way the rules are written, it's considered the pilot's fault because at the time of the accident the pilot controlled the aircraft..

          With regards to this particular argument, a trained human is forced to override the automated system that still maintains every capability of making an emergency situation far worse in the air. Automated systems in both the air and the ground right now are capable of navigating in a very basic manner from point A to point B and with far too many assumptions about what cannot go wrong in that journey to be viable as a full and valid primary system.

          If the automated system was that good, a pilot would likel

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