A Zoox autonomous robotaxi in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Pictures
Amazon‘s Zoox issued a software program recall for 270 of its robotaxis after a crash in Las Vegas final month, the corporate said Tuesday.
The recall surrounds a defect with the car’s automated driving system that might trigger it to inaccurately predict the motion of one other automotive, rising “the chance of a crash,” in line with a report submitted to the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration.
Zoox submitted the recall after an April 8 incident in Las Vegas the place an unoccupied Zoox robotaxi collided with a passenger car, the NHTSA report states. There have been no accidents within the crash and solely minor injury occurred to each autos.
“After evaluation and rigorous testing, Zoox recognized the foundation trigger,” the corporate mentioned in a weblog submit. “We issued a software program replace that was applied throughout all Zoox autos. All Zoox autos on the street immediately, together with our purpose-built robotaxi and check fleet, have the up to date software program.”
Zoox paused all driverless car operations whereas it reviewed the incident. It is since resumed operations after rolling out the software program replace.
Amazon acquired Zoox in 2020 for over $1 billion, saying on the time that the deal would assist deliver the self-driving know-how firm’s “imaginative and prescient for autonomous ride-hailing to actuality.” Nevertheless, Amazon has fallen far behind Alphabet‘s Waymo, which has robotaxi companies working in a number of U.S. markets. Tesla has additionally introduced plans to launch a robotaxi providing in Austin in June, although the corporate has missed many prior goal dates for releasing its know-how.
Zoox has been testing its robotaxis in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Foster Metropolis, California. Final month, Zoox began testing a small fleet of retrofitted autos in Los Angeles.
Final month, NHTSA closed a probe into two crashes involving Toyota Highlanders geared up with Zoox’s autonomous car know-how. The company opened the probe last May after the autos braked out of the blue and had been rear-ended by motorcyclists, which led to minor accidents.
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