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Posted on 07/30/2026 9:20:31 AM PDT by DFG
Amazon's Zoox unit won U.S. approval on Wednesday for limited commercial deployment of its novel steering-wheel-free robotaxis, a first for the autonomous ride industry, the U.S. auto safety agency said Thursday.
The exemption from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rules requiring human controls, first reported by Reuters, marks a milestone for companies developing robotaxis from the ground up, rather than modifying conventional cars under safety regulations written long before self-driving technology emerged.
Along with Zoox, whose electric carriage-style vehicle has two rows of inward-facing seats and a top speed of 75 miles per hour, others such as Tesla and Alphabet's Waymo are racing to expand autonomous ride-hailing services in the United States.
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison told Reuters that Zoox had received clearance to commercially deploy up to 2,500 vehicles in each of the next two years.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
The agency said it determined the vehicle is as safe as an equivalent vehicle meeting federal motor vehicle safety standards that are being waived. Zoox cannot sell any of the vehicles to the public.
"We can say pretty clearly that the systems in place on the Zoox exceed the equivalent performance requirements of a compliant vehicle," he said in an interview. "But we still want to make sure that the automated driving system will operate appropriately."
As part of the exemption, NHTSA is placing additional reporting requirements on Zoox for issues such as crashes or stopping inappropriately on roads, and the regulator will adjust the conditions based on how the vehicles behave.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
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Yeah, maybe I’ll have it drive me to my next CONvid booster shot appointment. IOW....no thanks.
Aaaarrghhh... You beat me to it!! I was just about to paste a Johnny Cab pic into my reply box :-D
Who goes to prison for killing someone when this goes wild?
That is exactly what I think of, with this.
First thing I thought of too.
No thanks
Conservative passenger: Open the robotaxi door and let me out.
I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave. You know the mission is too important to let anyone stand in its way.
'Amazon Abandons Checkout-Less Tech That Secretly Used 1,000 Indian Employees Watching Cameras'
https://thedeepdive.ca/amazon-abandons-checkout-less-tech-that-secretly-used-1000-indian-employees-watching-cameras/
"Amazon is doing away with the “Just Walk Out” checkout-less technology at its Fresh grocery stores... Instead of relying solely on artificial intelligence and advanced sensors, as Amazon had claimed, the Just Walk Out system depended heavily on manual labor from over 1,000 workers based in India... These remote “cashiers” monitored video footage from stores to track what items customers removed from shelves before generating receipts hours later."
This in an industry where Waymo executives admitted to overseas drivers of questionable ability, age, and without U.S. licenses, operating "driverless" cars.
"Waymo Exec Admits Remote Operators in Philippines Help Guide U.S. Robotaxis"
https://eletric-vehicles.com/waymo/waymo-exec-admits-remote-operators-in-philippines-help-guide-us-robotaxis/
The only ones I’ve encountered around Dallas are Uber’s Avrides in the Uptown/Turtle Creek area.
Oh, cool. Now car bombs can be sent in with no one in control. How fortunate.
Little did we know that a form of Johnny Cab would exist 40 years in the future.
Total Recall was supposed to be 2084, so we are 58 years ahead of schedule.
What happens when the autonomous rides approve themselves? Could be trouble.
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