Robotaxi Self-Crashes in Las Vegas

• A robotaxi from Zoox rear-ended an occupied passenger car last month on an unnamed Las Vegas freeway
• No injuries were reported
• A software issue was identified and corrected
• Zoox is owned by Amazon

The journey of self-driving taxis hit a speedbump last month in Las Vegas, and that speedbump was an occupied passenger vehicle.

One of the two dozen self-driving taxis that Zoox operates around Las Vegas rear-ended an occupied passenger vehicle on an unnamed freeway on April 8. No injuries were reported in the passenger vehicle, and the robotaxi was unoccupied at the time. Both vehicles suffered minor damage.

“Instead, the car came to a stop, fully yielding to the Zoox robotaxi and remaining in the shoulder lane,” Zoox said in a news release. “The Zoox robotaxi braked hard, but contact was unavoidable.”

Crash Course

The accident caused Zoox, purchased by Amazon for a reported $1.2-$1.3 billion in 2020, to hit the pause button on all self-driving tests on public streets nationwide.

Three days later, a simulation determined that the problem can only occur in robotaxis traveling at freeway speed.

At speeds over 40 mph, the Zoox vehicle may make an inaccurately confident prediction of the other vehicle’s behavior and be unable to avoid a collision,” read Zoox’s report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Transportation Administration (NHSTA).

Zoox pushed a software update to all 270 of its vehicles nationwide on April 16, then issued a voluntary recall to ensure that the update was properly installed. It then hit unpause for autonomous vehicle testing on local streets, and resumed freeway testing (but only with humans behind the wheel).

Zoox has been testing its robotaxis in Las Vegas since 2019, at first on a one-mile loop around the company’s headquarters before expanding to the Las Vegas Strip last year.

According to Las Vegas police, no incident report was filed after the crash, which begs the question of exactly how one exchanges driver information with a robotaxi.