Amazon’s autonomous vehicle division, Zoox, is poised to commence testing its self-driving vehicles in Atlanta, Georgia, signaling a crucial precursor to potentially offering public rides in the city. Zoox revealed to TechCrunch on Tuesday that it has completed the “initial mapping phase” in Atlanta and plans to initiate autonomous driving tests later in the summer. This development positions Atlanta as the seventh U.S. city where Zoox is testing its vehicles. The announcement comes mere days after Waymo, in partnership with Uber, disclosed plans to start offering rides in its robotaxis to early access users in Atlanta, ahead of a broader public launch scheduled for this summer.
Zoox is adopting a methodical approach to rolling out its promised robotaxi service. In Atlanta, as in other cities, the company utilized modified Toyota Highlanders to capture data such as road geometry and traffic light locations. Only after completing these preliminary steps can Zoox proceed with testing its autonomous vehicle technology in the area. The company has advanced to testing its purpose-built robotaxi without a safety operator in various California cities, including Foster City and San Francisco, as well as in Las Vegas, Nevada. Zoox intends to offer public rides in its robotaxi in San Francisco and Las Vegas by the end of the year.
As part of its developmental process, Zoox has been refining its autonomous vehicle technology. The company issued recalls in March and May related to software updates designed to address issues encountered by its self-driving test fleet during testing. This story has been updated with information from Zoox that was not included in its press release, detailing how the company has already gathered mapping and other data in Atlanta.
