Amazon Robotaxi fleet to be cruising Miami’s streets by summer

A new fleet of robotaxis will be introduced to Miami streets this summer, allowing the autonomous vehicles to hone their driving abilities before catering to the public.

Zoox, an Amazon subsidiary, announced June 5 that it will begin testing its autonomous technology in two new markets, Miami and Austi, TX. The mobility company says it hopes the deployment in Miami’s business and entertainment district will produce valuable insights that will help refine the vehicles driving in dense urban areas.

The California-based self-driving startup has been developing autonomous technology since 2014 and joined forces with Amazon in 2020 to fuel its work. In 2018, Zoox began operating in its home city of San Francisco, expanded testing to Las Vegas in 2019 and moved to Seattle in 2021.

Austin and Miami mark the company’s fourth and fifth public testing locations.

“We’re laying the foundations for our autonomous ride-hailing service in new cities across the US. Austin and Miami offer key learning opportunities that will support the continued growth and refinement of our testing and service,” said Ron Thaniel, senior director of policy and regulatory affairs at Zoox.

Zoox will first conduct a brief mapping mission before deploying its retrofitted Toyota Highlander testing fleet, equipped with safety drivers, in areas near Miami’s business and entertainment district this summer.

The vehicles will validate the company’s autonomous driving software before the robotaxis become available to the public, the company said.

“It’s key for us to fine-tune our autonomous driving in dense urban areas,” the company said. “To do this, we identify specific pre-planned routes that offer the most challenging driving features and scenarios, while also testing randomly selected point-to-point routes within a defined geofence. We always start with a focused testing area, expanding methodically as our AI gets more familiar with the unique conditions in each city.”

The company is expanding to Miami to enhance its autonomous testing capabilities because of the city’s unique urban environment.

In addition to the densely packed streets, wet weather and sometimes challenging driving conditions, Miami’s traffic lights are suspended diagonally across intersections, which could aid in gathering valuable data, Zoox noted.

“We won’t be deploying our purpose-built robotaxi or offering public rides in Austin or Miami just yet,” the company said. “Our target cities for our first commercial markets remain Las Vegas and San Francisco. But we’re exploring several cities for future commercial offerings after our initial launch.”