Amazon.com Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire autonomous-car developer Zoox, the two companies said Friday. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that the Seattle-based e-commerce giant was in advanced talks to buy Zoox, at a price lower than the $3.2 billion valuation Zoox had achieved in a previous fundraising round. Zoox was founded in 2014 and grew quickly amid expanding interest in autonomous vehicles and ride hailing but has more recently struggled to raise funding.

Amazon will reportedly pay over $1.2 billion to acquire Zoox, one of the many companies working on self-driving technology, according to The Information and The Financial Times. The acquisition would be Amazon's biggest step into self-driving so far, compared to smaller startup investments and internal work it has done to date. A source told The Financial Times that Amazon plans to create a ride-hailing fleet to rival Uber, Waymo and others. However, it could also be interested in developing autonomous tech to bolster its delivery network. If it succeeds, it could have self-driving trucks running 24/7, improving its same-day delivery services but eliminating human jobs in the process.