Autonomous vehicles are making another breakthrough

You know how to run Google searches, how to order an Uber, and how to use Netflix as a pretext to potentially have sex. Can Jeff Bezos convince you to get on a Zoox?

This is the plan. Monday, ZooxAmazon-owned company introduced an autonomous electric vehicle as part of what will likely be an aggressive attempt by the company to make robotaxis a phenomenon.

That effort has had an uncertain start for Zoox (as well as for Google, General Motors, Uber, and several Chinese companies). They have invested billions of dollars over the past decade and have faced all kinds of setbacks, including management problems, technological errors and tragic accidents, all in the quest to remove humans from the driver’s seat.

Founded in 2014, Zoox was valued at $ 3 billion once, in a better time for autonomous vehicles. Amazon paid about $ 1.2 billion for the company a few months ago.

Like many pioneers, Zoox has faced its challenges, but progress quickly came to a halt when the pandemic started. CEO Aicha Evans, as well as chief technology officer and founder, Jesse Levinson, told me in an interview last week that the company was forced to temporarily suspend all operations at its facility – it had to do it again recently.

The company also needed capital to survive (either through new investors or through a sale). “We absolutely thought we were going to fall into ruinEvans said, referring to the start of the pandemic. “But such a crisis can also focus on looking for investors with the long-term thinking that this type of technology needs.”

That’s when the e-commerce giant arrived. And the $ 1.2 billion that Amazon paid for the ambitious car company now seems like a bargain..

“Ultimately, we want to move people around town in the long run,” said Evans, who has long held a job at the top of Intel’s strategy. “It was built for a purpose.”

Zoox isn’t the only company moving forward. Many hope to create a fleet of robot taxis that will become popular in the coming years, and some of them have made progress in recent months.

The Chinese service AutoX was launched in Shenzhen. Google’s Waymo has done the same in a small Arizona town. The Chinese company Baidu has been granted a permit to test cars on the public road in Beijing, which suffers from heavy traffic. General Motors’ Cruise is on trial in San Francisco. And Aurora, run by a former freelance Google manager, has acquired Advanced Technologies Group from Uber for $ 4 billion (and the private transportation giant is investing $ 400 million in the company).

These claims are most interesting in the context of a pandemic. The use of public transport, such as buses and the metro, has declined dramatically. And the investments on the part of Uber are particularly notable, as the idea of ​​getting into the car with an Uber driver has become a riskier proposition (Uber has also faced some protection and employment issues as it faced driver demands as traditional full-time workers).

When face masks, open windows and other protective measures are needed, The idea of ​​a self-driving car that allows you and your family to travel alone has certainly become more appealing.

I’ve always liked the idea of ​​autonomous vehicles, at least since Chris Urmson, the Aurora manager, first showed me the possibilities of robotaxis six years ago, while at Google, during a demonstration of the small experimental vehicle. of that company.

He looked like a clown car and was driving around a parking lot at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California. The vehicle was moving very slowly and it felt like a kids ride in an amusement park, in circles around and around. However, Urmson was determined: he was standing right in front of the moving cart as it approached him to show it was safe to do so.

A few months ago I got into a Zoox car in San Francisco (it was the first time I’d seen autonomous technology in action in the real world). The name that looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book fits the car perfectly It looks like a weird box that looks like a Lego on steroids. My tour felt like a Disneyland attraction, with two opposite seats in a spacious cabin and doors that opened automatically..

We tour the hilly town on a predetermined route that the company used for testing purposes. People who are used to seeing all kinds of crazy technological inventions moving through the streets pointed at us and gave us their approval by showing their thumbs up.

It was a huge change from my first foray in a Google car. Zoox provided a smooth tour with few sudden stops or starts like some other autonomous tours. Plus, the Zoox vehicle is less intimidating than the cars we see on the road today – it has smooth edges and rounded corners, reminding adults like me of our playtime.

Still, I’ve always been nervous about fully autonomous transportation (no steering wheel, dashboard, pedals, or any kind of passenger operation). Until now, autonomous vehicles were mainly adaptive cars, with a driver ready to intervene in an emergency.

Aside from my fears, my biggest problem is that I don’t want to buy a car, so I really want these robotic efforts to pay off. As regular readers of this column may recall, I decided not to own a car almost two years ago. Since then, I’ve tried all kinds of ways to get around my urban environment, using everything from electric scooters to electric bicycles.

Whether or not the robot taxi trend catches on depends, as it were, on many factors, although getting past the concept phase has been a major breakthrough.

One concern, beyond safety, is that autonomous vehicles can affect public transport by making transport private and on demand.. While all autonomous efforts are described as robotic versions of taxis, in the long run these companies aim to attract a wide range of users.

Indeed, in the long term. Like many other driverless efforts, Zoox’s robotaxis will not be widely available for commercial operations, but will be further tested on private roads at Stanford University’s National Accelerator Laboratory starting next year. Achieving widespread public use will take much longer.

That got me thinking: is it part of Amazon’s strategy to accelerate autonomous deliveries?

Amazon sees “the magnitude of the opportunity that goes far beyond just saving money on logistics,” said Levinson, noting that Zoox still operates independently under its subsidiary and that the focus is solely on a robotic taxi.

Autonomous vehicles remain one of the greatest technological challenges today. This innovation requires not only physical progress, but also mental. Are we ready for this yet?

Evans understands skepticism. “I wanted to build something that I thought was safe to put my two kids in“said.” So I get it. “

© The New York Times 2020