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Amazon Zoox Unveils Autonomous Robotaxi

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday December 15 2020, @05:32AM   Printer-friendly
from the gad-zoox! dept.

takyon writes:

Amazon's Zoox unveils electric robotaxi that can travel up to 75 mph

Six years ago, Zoox launched quietly with a mighty mission: build and commercialize just about every aspect of a robotaxi service from the self-driving software stack and on-demand ridesharing app to the management of the fleet and an unconventional vehicle that would transport passengers.

Now, it's finally lifting the veil on its multi-year effort. Zoox, which was acquired earlier this year by Amazon, unveiled the electric, autonomous robotaxi it built from the ground up — a cube-like vehicle loaded with sensors, no steering wheel and a moonroof that is capable of transporting four people at speeds of up to 75 miles per hour. The vehicle can drive bidrectionally and has four-wheel steering, capabilities that Zoox said were included to allow it to maneuver through compact spaces and change directions without the need to reverse. In other words, dense urban environments.

The vehicle has a four-seat, face-to-face symmetrical seating configuration, similar to what a train traveler might encounter. It's also equipped with a 133 kilowatt-hour battery that Zoox said allows it to operate for up to 16 continuous hours on a single charge. Zoox didn't provide a mileage range for the battery.

Also at The Verge, Bloomberg, CNBC, and NYT.

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @07:37AM (2 children)

    by c0lo (156) on Tuesday December 15 2020, @07:37AM (#1087493) Journal

    Auto-pilot is pilot. And it will need to have eyes all around to avoid collisions in 3D.
    If it has LIDAR eyes, can be overpowered/jammed by a laser in the Watt range - probs $100 off-the-shelf.

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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:40PM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:40PM (#1087559) Journal

    Easy solution: Surround the sensors with retroreflectors. Anyone stupid enough to try blinding the car will blind themselves.

    Not that I think you can easily hide in a crowded street when pointing a laser on a car passing by.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:48PM

      by c0lo (156) on Tuesday December 15 2020, @01:48PM (#1087563) Journal

      Easy solution:

      No, forget it. Hard to attack sensors looking mainly downwards.

      Surround the sensors with retroreflectors. Anyone stupid enough to try blinding the car will blind themselves.

      Ain't gonna work - unless it's using passive vision (like Tesla), the power of its own emmitors will be low to protect the ones in the proximity. Adding retroreflectors ain't gonna help.

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      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0