For over a decade, autonomous vehicle company Zoox has been building an autonomous vehicle designed to stand out from others on the road.
There's a reason the rectangular glass-paneled Zoox robotaxi looks so weird. Besides the vehicles' lack of steering wheels, perhaps the most interesting Zoox feature is its two-engine design.
Zoox calls its vehicles bi-directional, meaning there is no forward or reverse because both directions are forward. The two motors at different ends of the car allow it to drive forward in two directions.
Related: Latest Waymo setback raises serious questions about its future
Nvidia (NVDA) has been one of the company's partners since its inception.
Unlike Tesla (TSLA) , which has said it doesn't use the technology because it's too expensive, Zoox utilizes light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to navigate traffic autonomously.
LiDAR uses lasers to measure distances and create highly detailed 3D models of its surroundings. Zoox uses this tech, along with cameras, radar, long-wave infrared sensors, and microphones, to map the traffic around it.
All of that tech needs a lot of computing power, and Nvidia has provided that power since 2014.
But now the startup is ready to take its vehicles to the streets in a big way, according to a new note from Morgan Stanley.
Amazon's Zoox: Production facility is just the beginning
Last week, Zoox cut the ribbon on a new serial production facility for purpose-built U.S. robotaxis in Hayward, California, near Silicon Valley.
The company will use the facility for engineering, software/hardware, integration, assembly and everything else.
According to Morgan Stanley analyst Bran Nowak, who has seen the facility's size and grandeur, suggests that Amazon, which bought Zoox for $1.2 billion in June 2020, is fully committed to ensuring the company builds something viable soon.
“Zoox's Hayward, the CA facility, is 220,000 square feet (~3.5 American football fields) and, at full scale, has the capacity to assemble more than 10,000 robotaxis per year,” says Nowak.
“Notably, this is similar to Waymo's Mesa, AZ
plant at 239,000 square feet in size and capable of producing tens of thousands of
vehicles per year.”
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Of course, Tesla does not have any issues with production capacity for its robotaxis since Tesla's ultimate goal for the program is to have every Tesla on the road have the capacity to be a robotaxis.
Tesla built nearly 1.8 million vehicles last year.
Tesla robotaxi runs into trouble in its debut
Tesla robotaxi launched in Austin, Texas, in June to much fanfare.
Tesla also has ambitions to expand to different locales, but its debut has gotten off to a rocky start.
Multiple videos have appeared on social media showing the vehicles failing to achieve the basic road competence of a student driver.
User @BradMunchen didn't share where his video came from, but the 42-second clip shows a Tesla robotaxi with its left blinker on following a safe distance behind the vehicle in front of it. But the robotaxi becomes “confused” after the vehicle in front makes a left turn.
The autonomous vehicle drives in the wrong lane for five seconds before correcting its course and safely merging into another lane.
But there is also a lot of hype around the program. Tesla hopes to figure out Austin soon so it can move on to the next city.
Related: Tesla robotaxi safety called into question after frightening video
