Zoox Updates Self-Driving Software After San Francisco Crash
Okay, so remember Amazon's self-driving car company, Zoox? Yeah, they just put out another software update for their cars. This is the second one, which is kind of interesting. The goal this time is to make sure the cars are way better at seeing people walking around nearby. They also want to make sure the car doesn't move if someone is too close. This all happened after a little crash in San Francisco recently.
Apparently, this update is for about 270 of their vehicles, which is all the cars they have with this self-driving software right now. Zoox actually told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about it. So, here's what went down on May 8th: someone on an electric scooter was turning slowly at a corner in San Francisco and bumped into an empty Zoox robotaxi. The scooter rider got a little hurt, just minor stuff, and fell down next to the car. And then, the car started to move a tiny bit and then stopped, but it didn't hit the rider again. That incident made Zoox stop driving their cars on the road for a bit so they could look into things.
Zoox said this new software update is supposed to fix a problem they had with people being near their self-driving cars, especially when the cars are stopped or moving super slowly, or just about to start moving again. They mentioned that in some rare cases, the car might start moving again without realizing someone is still right there. After the incident, Zoox stopped all their driverless car operations. Then, they did the software update, ran a bunch of tests and simulations, and they said they started driving again just last week. Oh, and all these cars belong to Zoox; you can't buy them yet.
Zoox has been testing these self-driving cars on regular roads since 2023, starting in places like California and Nevada. Last year, they started testing in Florida and Texas too. Right now, you can find their test cars driving around the Bay Area, which includes San Francisco, and also in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, and Miami. It's kind of a lot of places, tbh. You know, earlier this month, Zoox actually had another software recall for the same 270 driverless vehicles because there was a crash in Las Vegas back in April. That time, an empty robotaxi crashed into another car. Also, just in April, the NHTSA finished looking into a braking issue with 258 Zoox vehicles after Zoox recalled them to update their software. So yeah, they've been pretty busy with updates and stuff.
