An Amazon warehouse in France (illustration).

-

T. Samson / AFP

Zoox, the Amazon subsidiary specializing in autonomous vehicles, has just presented a new robot taxi.

Called Zoox AV, the prototype is functional and has already circulated on private roads in Las Vegas, San Francisco and Foster City (United States), reports

Clubic

.

It will soon be performing tests in real conditions.

The vehicle, which looks like a rectangle with four wheels, has two benches placed face to face.

Four people can sit there and the Zoox AV can reach 120 km / h - a significant speed for a vehicle intended for urban journeys.

Amazon presented, via its subsidiary Zoox, its first 100% autonomous robot-taxi.

It has 16 hours of autonomy and a top speed of 120 km / h.



The result of 6 years of research.

pic.twitter.com/Y3YwRovkEm

- Views (@views_mag) December 15, 2020

The problem of the vehicle without a steering wheel

The autonomous taxi has a 133 kW / h battery allowing 16 hours of use on a single charge.

The vehicle, without a steering wheel, is capable of driving forward and backward with four directional wheels.

On the security side, it has lidar radars allowing a 270-degree panoramic view at every corner.

It can thus be adapted to emergency situations and specific airbags have been provided for the passengers.

For info, the article in French which brought me to this video.

https://t.co/pNI6RJUc26 The design is more current than on the navya and much more international

- La Mante (@la__mante) December 15, 2020

The Zoox AV has passed Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards crash tests.

However, it is not known whether the American body has validated the movement of the vehicle in public space.

Vehicles without a steering wheel, and therefore without a driver ready to intervene in the event of a problem, have more difficulty obtaining approval.

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