Amazon latest to eye self-driving tech, may buy robo-taxi startup Zoox, says WSJ
30 May, 2020
Amazon is in foretells buy robo-taxi startup Zoox, accelerating its efforts in terms of self-driving vehicles, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Amid reports of taxi aggregators such as for example Uber and Ola retrenching as many as 2,000 staff, and Ola CEO declaring to employees that the continuing future of the business is looking bleak, a shift to self-driven taxis in age physical distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic appears inevitable.
Google’s parent Alphabet, Uber, Tesla and major car makers such as BMW, Toyota, Volswagen and several Chinese companies have already been buying technology that eliminates the need for humans to navigate vehicles.
Amazon has its team in the race and is reported to be pursuing the technology with an eye toward using it in trucks moving goods for the e-commerce colossus.
Amazon and Zoox are in advanced negotiations of a deal that would value the startup at less than the $3.2 billion it had been estimated to be worth in a funding round 2 yrs ago, the Journal reported, citing unnamed persons with knowledge of the problem.
The take-over talks could yet break down, according to the report.
Located in Foster City near SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, Zoox was founded in 2014 with a mission to create a “fleet of fully autonomous, battery electric, zero-emission vehicles that are purpose-built and optimized for ridesharing in cities.”
Zoox late this past year targeted NEVADA as market for an “autonomous driving fleet and service” by vehicles that may be summoned by using a smartphone app, according to its website.
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