Zoox will test autonomous cars in Austin and Miami

Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving unit, is bringing its autonomous vehicles to more cities.

The self-driving technology company announced Wednesday that it plans to begin testing in Austin and Miami this summer. The two cities are Zoox’s fourth and fifth test cities, following Las Vegas, San Francisco and Seattle.

The news comes as federal regulators have increased scrutiny of self-driving car companies like Waymo and Zoox, both of which are under scrutiny over safety issues. Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asked Zoox for more information to help investigate rear-end crash risks posed by unexpected braking.

This increased scrutiny — prompted by a crash involving a pedestrian in a Cruze last year — is likely part of the reason Zoox is taking a slow and steady approach to testing and scaling.

A Zoox spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company began mapping cities this spring. Over the summer, Zoox will deploy its retrofitted Toyota Highlander test fleet “in small areas near business and entertainment districts” with safety drivers behind the wheel. The company did not say how many test vehicles it would send to each city.

Zoox also did not say when it aims to remove the safety driver or begin commercial operations in Austin or Miami. Instead, the company is focused on using different urban environments to improve its autonomous systems. For example, Austin has horizontal traffic lights, traffic lights hanging on wires, railroad crossings and severe storms. Miami has traffic lights hanging askew over intersections and, of course, the city has impatient drivers with road rage.

Zoox’s testing protocol is twofold: the company identifies specific pre-planned routes that provide challenging driving features and scenarios, while also randomly testing a few point-to-point routes within a defined geofence.

“We always start with a focused test area, and systematically expand it as our AI becomes familiar with the unique conditions of each city,” the blog post reads.

The tests in Austin and Miami are planned as Zoox prepares for its first commercial launch. Zoox has a permit to test its vehicles without a safety driver in parts of San Francisco and Foster City, and is targeting that market as one of its first launch cities, along with Las Vegas.

Zoox did not respond to TechCrunch’s request to provide a timeline for commercial deployment or a definition of geofenced areas.

Zoox has become famous thanks to images of its purpose-built robotaxi, the cute, breadbox-shaped vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals and side doors that open to let passengers in. The company will not yet test those vehicles on public roads in Austin or Miami. Zoox previously said it had begun limited testing of fully driverless robotaxi on public roads in Las Vegas and San Francisco and plans to begin offering rides to passengers this year. In February, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) granted Zoox its driverless AV pilot permit, which allows the company to carry members of the public for free within the boundaries of its approved Foster City domain. Zoox has not confirmed whether it has begun doing so.

News of Zoox’s expansion comes as the robotaxi space has found a second wind. Or maybe it’s a third wind. GM’s Cruise also recently announced plans Test its robotaxis in Dallas and Phoenix. Alphabet’s Waymo began offering driverless rides to employees in Austin earlier this year in preparation for a planned commercial launch this year, and the company also recently announced plans to begin robotaxi testing in Atlanta.