Recently, Amazon's self-driving startup Zoox launched the first self-driving car Pod for Robotaxi operation, which is a completely unmanned and electrified vehicle specially designed for autonomous driving scenarios.
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According to Zoox, the Pod is equipped with two battery packs, which can last 65,438+06 hours on a single charge and have a top speed of 75 miles per hour. It is worth noting that this car is not based on the transformation of the traditional car foundation. It has no throttle, brake pads and steering wheel, and has two-way driving ability and four-wheel steering function. It can move in any direction, and there is no reverse.
At the live broadcast conference, Aisha, CEO of Zoox? Evans personally demonstrated Zoox? How to use Robotaxi: Use Zoox app to summon Pod outside fairmont Hotel and take it nearby. In order to commercialize this technology, Zoox plans to take the lead in launching Robotaxi service based on App in cities such as San Francisco and Las Vegas.
For this company, which was founded on 20 14 and has been committed to developing self-driving passenger cars, the official launch of mass-produced self-driving cars marks an important step. Aisha? Evans said at the live broadcast conference that the release of self-driving cars is an exciting milestone, and we are building a sustainable and safe solution to enable cyclists to change their travel experience from point A to point B. In an interview, Zoox Chief Technology Officer Jesse? Levinson stressed that unlike many concept cars exhibited by other companies in the past few years, this car passed all the crash tests of FMVSS.
However, Zoox is not the first company to launch a fully automatic passenger car. This year 65438+ 10 month, general cruise? This paper shows a pure electric self-driving car Origin, which does not have many control devices owned by traditional cars, such as pedals, steering wheel, rearview mirror and so on.
Zoox's self-driving car is similar to Origin, but smaller, and it is planned to carry one or two passengers (although the maximum capacity is four passengers). The sensor is integrated with the vehicle, and each corner of the pod has a "sensor pod" equipped with a rotating laser sensor, laser radar and camera to assist navigation. A pair of front cameras are installed on the top of Zoox, and other inconspicuous sensors are installed on both sides of the car body. Every corner can provide a 270-degree view, allowing the car to see more than 360 degrees at a time.
In addition, the car also has some safety functions. In the event of a collision, a cocoon-shaped airbag will be formed around each passenger. The company also provides remote manual operation of vehicles and real-time communication with passengers. For those who are worried about privacy, Zoox said that passengers will be able to choose to blur the images taken by the car camera.
Zoox has the ambition of Zoox, and Amazon has the ambition of Amazon.
Zoox is also one of several companies that are committed to pushing self-driving cars to the road, but it takes longer than expected to achieve this goal. Up to now, the self-driving test vehicles driving on public roads are all modified from traditional cars, and there are almost no self-driving cars for commercial use. In June 5438+10 last year, Waymo launched a fully self-driving taxi service in the suburbs of Phoenix, and Cruise also tested self-driving taxis in San Francisco, and recently removed the safety driver.
Although it will take several years to deploy such self-driving cars, Zoox has put into production several mint-green self-driving cars in a factory in fremont, California. According to company executives, the annual production capacity of the factory can reach 65,438+0,000 to 65,438+0,000 vehicles. Suppliers can assemble the main components such as drive unit, car body and battery pack in advance, and then use Zoox? Complete the subsequent assembly work.
The company also used a pile of Lego bricks as a metaphor for the production process, but executives refused to disclose the names of their battery suppliers. "We have a huge world-class supply chain to manufacture auto parts. Simply think about it, it is like a huge Lego-a Lego weighing several tons. "
In June this year, Zoox was acquired by Amazon for $1.200 million, but the former remained independent. Having said that, it is necessary to add some background knowledge about Zoox: it has worked with Waymo, Cruise, Argo? AI and Aurora are also known as the "five families" of autonomous driving in Silicon Valley. But compared with many autonomous driving companies in the United States, Zoox itself is also the most radical startup for autonomous driving.
First of all, Zoox is the first unmanned service provider approved by California to carry passengers. According to regulatory data, although 62 companies have obtained permission to test self-driving vehicles in California, Zoox? This is the first company allowed to transport ordinary passengers.
Secondly, the development goals and products of Zoox are different from those of other enterprises. Zoox not only developed its own autonomous driving system, but also built a platform for self-driving cars and calling cars. It can be seen that no matter which project is a huge money burning pit. Although they had raised about $654.38 billion before being acquired by Amazon, it was not enough to burn money. Coupled with the huge impact of this year's epidemic, Zoox's predicament has become more and more obvious. Layoffs began in April. In May, foreign media broke the news that they were looking for potential buyers and were finally won by Bezos, the world's richest man.
At that time, Amazon acquired Zoox, and industry observers speculated that Amazon would eventually plan to deploy an unmanned distribution fleet. After all, human logistics distribution is one of the biggest costs in operation. According to Amazon's 2020 Q 1 financial report, its revenue is $75.5 billion, its net income is $2.5 billion, and its earnings per share is $5.065438 +0. And at 20 19? Q 1, Amazon's revenue was $59.7 billion, net income was $3.6 billion, and earnings per share was $7.09. Combined with other public information, it can be seen that Amazon's revenue has increased, but its profit has decreased, mainly because of high transportation costs.
Bloomberg intelligence analyst? Jeetendra? Waller and April? Kim said in a research report that the acquisition of Zoox will help Amazon control rising transportation costs. It is estimated that by 2025, Amazon's transportation cost will exceed 60 billion US dollars. Obviously, to a large extent, Amazon hopes to create synergies on the basis of its existing business.
Evans said in an interview that there is no plan to do so at present, but he admitted that "at some point, we may enter the field of automatic delivery." No matter which segment you work in in the future, Amazon's hidden strength cannot be underestimated. According to Reuters, from February, 20 16 to May, 20 19, Amazon has more than 2 10 patents in logistics-related fields such as drones and self-driving cars, which is significantly higher than that of Apple and Google.
In short, Zoox has Zoox's ambition, and Amazon has Amazon's ambition. Today, although driverless cars have not yet come into reality, e-commerce giants from the technology and automobile industries and even like Amazon are paying close attention to the layout and the competition is becoming increasingly fierce.
For Zoox, although it already has certain software and hardware conditions, whether autopilot technology is suitable for practical use is not only a technical issue, but also a topic involving many aspects such as law, society and ethics. So what achievements players including Zoox can make in autonomous driving, the final answer may be difficult to settle in a year or two.
Text/Sun Lili
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This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.