The autonomous vehicle company Zoox, owned by Amazon.com Inc. (Nasdaq: AMZN), is deploying its technology this month to Seattle for the first time and will open an office in the area next year, the company announced Monday.
Zoox is sending out an undisclosed number of its "L3" vehicles, which are all-wheel-drive Toyota Highlanders. When the company is testing its autonomous driving technology, it said a safety driver will "take control if needed."
"A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor, and it’s the exact same principle for our technology," said Kai Wang, Zoox's director of prediction, in the announcement. "The challenges of Seattle will let us hone our software stack and ultimately improve the behavior of our vehicles.”
Unlike its parent company, Zoox doesn't have Seattle origins and has been working out of its three testing sites in Las Vegas, San Francisco and its headquarters in Foster City, California.
Amazon bought the robotaxi-focused company last year for a reported $1.2 billion.
Amazon has been publicly hands-off with Zoox. While analysts and former executives believe the tech giant will eventually use Zoox's autonomous technology in its operations and logistics division, Amazon's former retail CEO Jeff Wilke said it was simply helping the autonomous taxi service scale up.
It's a contrast to Amazon's other vehicle venture with electric automaker Rivian. Amazon has invested heavily into the company and ordered 100,000 vehicles from it. Those will be designated electric delivery vehicles.
Zoox didn't give details on its 2022 plans to set up an office in the Seattle area.
