HAYWARD, Calif. (AP) Amazon is gearing up to make as many as 10,000 robotaxis annually at a sprawling plant near Silicon Valley as it prepares to challenge self-driving cab leader Waymo. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also vying to join the autonomous race.
The 220,000-square-foot (20,440-square-meters) robotaxi factory announced Wednesday heralds a new phase in Amazons push into a technological frontier that began taking shape in 2009, when Waymo was launched as a secret project within Google.
Amazon began eyeing the market five years ago when it shelled out $1.2 billion for self-driving startup Zoox, which will be the brand behind a robotaxi service that plans to begin transporting customers in Las Vegas late this year before expanding into San Francisco next year.
Zoox, conceived in 2014, will be trying to catch up to Waymo, which began operating robotaxis in Phoenix nearly five years ago then charging for rides in San Francisco in 2023 before expanding into Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. Waymo says it has already more than 10 million paid rides while other would-be rivals such as Amazon and Tesla are still fine-tuning their self-driving technology while tackling other challenges, such how to ramp up their fleet.
Amazon feels like has addressed that issue with Zooxs manufacturing plant that spans across the equivalent of three-and-a-half football fields located in Hayward, California about 17 miles (27 kilometers) north of a factory where Tesla makes some of the electric vehicles that Musk believes will eventually be able to operate without a driver behind the wheel.
Since moving into the former bus manufacturing factory in 2023, Zoox has transformed it into a high-tech facility where its boxy, gondola-like vehicles are put together and tested along a 21-station assembly line. For now, Zoox is only making one robotaxi per day, but by next year hopes to be churning them out at the rate of three vehicles per hour.
By 2027, Zoox hopes to making 10,000 robotaxis annually in Hayward for a fleet that it hopes to take into other major markets, including Miami, Los Angeles and Atlanta. Although Zoox will be assembling its robotaxis in the U.S., about half of the parts are imported from outside the country, according to company officials.
Its an exciting time to be heading on this journey, Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said during a Tuesday tour of the robotaxi factory that she co-hosted with Jesse Levinson, the companys co-founder and chief technology officer.
Although Zoox will be lagging well behind, it believes it can lure passengers with vehicles that look more like carriages that cars with seating for up to four passengers. Waymo, in contrast, builds its self-driving technology on to cars made by other major automakers, making its robotaxi look similar to vehicles steered by humans. Zoox isnt even bothering to put a steering wheel in its robotaxis.
As it continues to test its robotaxis in Las Vegas, Zoox recently struck a partnership to give rides to guests of Reorts World . Its also still testing its robotaxis in San Francisco, where Waymo already has turned driverless cars into an everyday site in a city that has been renowned for cable cars since the 1870s. While testing in San Francisco last month, a minor collision between a Zoox robotaxi and a person riding an electric scooter last month prompted the company to issue a voluntary recall to update its self-driving technology. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Tesla is still angling to compete against Waymo too, although it remains unclear when Musk will fuflil his long-running promise to build the worlds largest robotaxi service. Musk still hasnt given up on the goal, though his current ambitions are more modest than they were in 2019. when he predicted Tesla would be running a fleet of 1 million robotaxis by now. He is currently aiming for a limited rollout of Tesla robotaxis in Austin this Sunday, although that date could change because Musk is being super paranoid about safety.
Zoox, in contrast, is planning to operate 500 to 1,000 of its robotaxis in small to medium-sized markets and about 2,000 robotaxis in major cities where it eventually operates, according to Evans. The company thinks each robotaxi produced in its Hayward plan should be on the road for about five years, or about 500,000 miles
美联社加州海沃德电——亚马逊正计划在硅谷附近的大型工厂每年生产多达1万辆自动驾驶出租车，准备向行业领头羊Waymo发起挑战。特斯拉首席执行官埃隆·马斯克也正试图加入这场自动驾驶竞赛。
亚马逊周三宣布建设的22万平方英尺（约合2.044万平方米）无人驾驶出租车工厂，标志着该公司自2009年进军技术前沿领域以来进入新阶段——当年Waymo还只是谷歌内部的一个秘密项目。
亚马逊五年前就开始布局这一市场，当时斥资12亿美元收购了自动驾驶初创公司Zoox。该公司将成为机器人出租车服务的品牌，计划于今年晚些时候在拉斯维加斯开始载客运营，明年将业务扩展至旧金山。
Zoox公司成立于2014年，目前正努力追赶Waymo的步伐。Waymo近五年前在凤凰城率先推出自动驾驶出租车服务，2023年又在旧金山开启付费运营，随后将业务扩展至洛杉矶和得克萨斯州奥斯汀。Waymo宣称其付费订单量已突破1000万单，而亚马逊、特斯拉等潜在竞争对手仍在完善自动驾驶技术，并面临扩大车队规模等挑战。
亚马逊似乎已通过Zoox的制造工厂解决了这一问题。该工厂位于加利福尼亚州海沃德市，占地面积相当于三个半足球场，距离特斯拉某电动汽车制造工厂约17英里（27公里）以北。马斯克认为，特斯拉生产的这些电动汽车最终将实现无人驾驶。
自2023年入驻前巴士制造工厂以来，Zoox已将其改造成一座高科技设施。在这里，其方方正正、形似贡多拉的自动驾驶汽车沿着21个工位的装配线进行组装和测试。目前Zoox每天仅能生产一辆自动驾驶出租车，但到明年有望将产量提升至每小时三辆。
自动驾驶公司Zoox计划到2027年，在加州海沃德市实现年产1万辆无人驾驶出租车，并期望将车队拓展至迈阿密、洛杉矶和亚特兰大等其他主要市场。公司高管表示，尽管Zoox将在美国本土组装无人驾驶出租车，但约半数零部件需从海外进口。
Zoox首席执行官艾莎·埃文斯（Aicha Evans）周二在参观机器人出租车工厂时表示：“踏上这段旅程是一个激动人心的时刻。”此次参观活动由她与公司联合创始人兼首席技术官杰西·莱文森（Jesse Levinson）共同主持。
尽管Zoox将远远落后于竞争对手，但它相信可以通过外观更像马车而非传统汽车的车辆来吸引乘客，这些车辆最多可容纳四人。相比之下，Waymo将其自动驾驶技术应用于其他主要汽车制造商生产的车辆上，使其机器人出租车看起来与人类驾驶的车辆相似。Zoox甚至懒得在其机器人出租车中安装方向盘。
自动驾驶公司Zoox在拉斯维加斯持续测试其机器人出租车之际，近日与名胜世界达成合作，为其宾客提供接驳服务。该公司同时仍在旧金山进行测试——这座自19世纪70年代以缆车闻名于世的城市，如今Waymo的无人驾驶汽车已融入日常街景。上月在旧金山测试期间，一辆Zoox机器人出租车与电动滑板车骑行者发生轻微碰撞，促使公司主动召回车辆以升级自动驾驶技术。据悉该事件未造成人员伤亡。
特斯拉仍在试图与Waymo竞争，尽管马斯克何时能兑现其打造全球最大机器人出租车服务的长期承诺尚不明确。马斯克仍未放弃这一目标，但其当前野心已比2019年时更为谨慎——当时他曾预测特斯拉如今应已拥有百万辆规模的机器人出租车队。目前他计划于本周日在奥斯汀小范围试运营特斯拉机器人出租车，但这一日期可能因马斯克��对安全性极度偏执��而变动。
据埃文斯（Evans）透露，Zoox公司则计划在中小型市场投放500至1000辆自动驾驶出租车，并在最终运营的主要城市部署约2000辆。该公司认为，其海沃德（Hayward）工厂生产的每辆自动驾驶出租车预计使用寿命为五年左右，或累计行驶约50万英里。
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