The Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous taxi venture, has received approval to deploy its current fleet of electric, steering wheel-less vehicles for demonstration purposes.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) granted a waiver for federal vehicle safety standards following a request from the company sent in June.
With this certification, the agency closed an investigation opened in 2022 to determine whether the autonomous electric vehicles, which have neither pedals nor a steering wheel, would meet safety requirements when the company self-certified the vehicle.
At the time, the federal regulator stated that the startup self-certified its autonomous cars in June 2022, but that “publicly available materials depicting Zoox vehicles suggested that they may not be compliant with certain FMVSS.”
During the investigation, an inspection report from NHTSA noted “multiple non-conformities with applicable FMVSS standards.” The document also stated that Zoox was an exception in the industry, having opted for self-certification rather than seeking a waiver that was available.
Now that the waiver is in effect, NHTSA has instructed Amazon’s robotaxi company to remove all existing statements claiming that the specially designed taxis meet or are in compliance with all applicable federal vehicle safety standards.
However, the waiver only applies to the vehicles from Zoox that were included in the NHTSA investigation, excluding some 2023 models that have been retired. According to the document, a total of 64 vehicles currently operating on public roads are covered by the waiver.
It is important to note that the waiver does not allow Zoox to operate its robotaxis commercially, and the cars may only be used for demonstration purposes. Currently, the company is testing the four-wheeled pods near its headquarters in Foster City, California, as well as in Las Vegas and San Francisco.
Photo and video: Zoox. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
