Amazon is always looking for new ways of expanding its influence, and its latest investment promises to make a huge difference in the world. Namely, the company has made a huge step towards self-driving vehicles by buying Zoox, a six-year-old startup company looking to fully automate vehicles.
Their startup was trying to find investors ready to push the idea of autonomous vehicles forward, and Amazon has finally answered the call. Zoox will now continue working on their projects as a standalone business under Amazon's wing. But when can we expect the first vehicles to hit the market?
Let's see how things are unfolding.
One Step Closer to Autonomous Vehicles
According to Amazon's CEO of global consumer, Jeff Wilke, Zoox is a company working hard to come up with a flawless autonomous ride-hailing experience. The company is very passionate about putting their ideas into reality, and Amazon recognized their true intentions.
The details of the Zoox deal are still a secret, but some claims say that Amazon had to pay at least $1.2 billion to acquire the company. Amazon has promised to help Zoox complete its project, and the eCommerce giant's stocks saw a small increase following this news.
Amazon's last big investment was Whole Foods when the company spent $13.7 billion in the acquisition deal. Amazon has rarely spent over 1 billion dollars to acquire any business, which means that this deal with Zoox is a serious move.
The recent COVID-19 situation has put Amazon under the close eye of regulators that want to make sure all rules are followed. The recent purchase of Zoox is expected to lead to serious criticism from lawmakers because most of them think that this is not the right time.
We still don't know what Amazon plans to do with the new technology, but many experts say that they plan on developing an autonomous delivery system and cashier-less stores.
No matter what happens, if Zoox's inventions really work, they will soon find their way into other practices like taxis, rideshare delivery, car manufacturers, and many others.
The Zoox Deal
Zoox was launched as a startup in 2014. The company was always looking to find a way to create autonomous vehicles, and it slowly started earning money on ideas. In 2018, Zoox was valued at $3.2 billion, but due to some internal turmoil, the progress was drastically slowed down.
It also had a legal dispute with Tesla over alleged trade secrets theft, as Tesla was and still is working on the same ideas as Zoox. The problem arose when Zoox employed several people who worked for Tesla on self-driving cars.
Tesla claimed that Zoox stole ideas from their Aurora program, and implemented it on its own self-driving program. While Zoox claims that their autonomous driving program doesn't share the same technology, the lawsuit is still in the works.
The COVID-19 situation has led to over 100 job cuts in Zoox, following a previous cut of 120 workers. All of these factors led to a huge drop in company value, which is why Amazon didn't have to pay the full price of 3.2 billion dollars.
Jeff Bezos, the owner and CEO of Amazon, has been talking about autonomous cars for quite some time now. He is very passionate about self-driving cars and trucks, as Amazon already uses similar vehicles on the I-10 Interstate. Bezos seems to believe that Zoox is close to inventing foolproof self-driving trucks.
It's no secret that Amazon is already spending hundreds of millions of dollars on self-driving technologies. The company spent $700 million on Rivian, an electric car startup, and it also has a share in Tesla's Aurora program.
Zoox is the latest self-driving investment for Amazon, and it's the biggest one that the company ever made. The final product is still far away from reaching the market, so Amazon will have to spend billions of dollars more to make that happen.
Zoox's Technology
There is a big race to perfect autonomous vehicles in the world right now. Many massive companies are spending billions to be the first ones to come up with self-driving cars and trucks. Zoox has a different approach to the problem than most other companies, including Tesla, Uber, Ford, GM, and others.
This technology includes features like sideways turning wheels that would make maneuvering in tight spaces and parallel parking much easier. The technology could find its way into standard cars as well.
Zoox has a few more ideas up its sleeves, but the company can't move forward without significant investments. Amazon has signed the deal, so we can expect to see new advancements in this technology soon.
Autonomous Driving Into the Future
We are still years away from fully autonomous cars and trucks, but it's almost certain that we will all witness self-driving cars in the near future. Of course, a huge change like that will completely transform the way we think about transportation. Lyft and Uber cars won't need drivers. Big trucks could transport goods and materials on highways autonomously.
The new inventions will almost certainly affect services like the Google Rideshare app. Not only will these cars drive themselves, but they will also run on electricity, so there won't be any gas bills to cover. People who use Rideshare will probably find easier ways of getting around.
Experts say that we will only need an app to book an autonomous car when we need it. That might lead to a huge drop in car sales since most self-driving cars will become a form of public transportation, making platforms like Rideshare the preferred option.
Exciting Times Are Ahead
It looks like 2020 is somewhat of a turning point for the entire global population. Everything is changing at breakneck speeds, and we seem to be making big steps towards a more evolved future.
Our world will soon become something that's usually seen in sci-fi movies, and you can't imagine a futuristic world without self-driving cars. All we can do is sit back and wait for these changes to take place. Exciting times are ahead of us!
