How Zoox vehicles "find themselves" in an ever-changing world

For a human to drive successfully around an urban environment, they must be able to trust their eyes and other senses, know where they are, understand the permissible ways to move their vehicle safely, and of course know how to reach their destination. Building these abilities, and so many more, into an autonomous electric vehicle designed to transport customers smoothly and safely around densely populated cities takes an astonishing amount of technological innovation. Since its founding in 2014, Zoox has been developing autonomous ride-hailing vehicles, and the systems that support them, from the ground up. The company, which is based in Foster City, California, became an independent subsidiary of Amazon in 2020. The Zoox purpose-built robot is an autonomous, pod-like electric vehicle that can carry four passengers in comfort.