Ever since Zoox was founded, they have kept mostly secret their effort to design the vehicle of the future from the ground up, rather than just working on a self-driving system like almost everybody else.
Today they showed off their design. Since I knew their original plan, having met extensively with Zoox's founder in its early days, nothing greatly surprised me, but there are quite a few nice touches.
Ready my examination of what's new in Zoox's thinking at this new Forbes site article.
Looks like something that was designed by a team of comp sci majors and accountants (with help from an ADA lawyer).
(I wonder how Waymo is going to ensure ADA compliance. Will they build an accessible fleet? Just use human drivers and generic accessible vehicles? Expensive either way, but it'll provide a much better experience than that Zoox monstrosity.)
I believe the right answer is to have different vehicles which are highly accessible (roll right in or easy to walk in slowly) and not try to make the main vehicles that way. Just make a few more of them per disabled person than you make the regular vehicles, "separate but superior." I've written about the Kenguru design that I like, but it's not the only way.
It'll be interesting to see what the different companies choose.
Personally, I think the right answer is to leave vehicle sharing (including robotaxis) to the poor, the people in hyper-urban places where parking is in extremely short supply, and the occasional travel away from home.
It does look like Zoox is targeting those first two markets.
Comments
FKA
Mon, 2020-12-14 11:31
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Great for traveling around Disney World
Looks like something that was designed by a team of comp sci majors and accountants (with help from an ADA lawyer).
(I wonder how Waymo is going to ensure ADA compliance. Will they build an accessible fleet? Just use human drivers and generic accessible vehicles? Expensive either way, but it'll provide a much better experience than that Zoox monstrosity.)
brad
Mon, 2020-12-14 23:06
Permalink
Access
I believe the right answer is to have different vehicles which are highly accessible (roll right in or easy to walk in slowly) and not try to make the main vehicles that way. Just make a few more of them per disabled person than you make the regular vehicles, "separate but superior." I've written about the Kenguru design that I like, but it's not the only way.
FKA
Tue, 2020-12-15 10:26
Permalink
communal transit
It'll be interesting to see what the different companies choose.
Personally, I think the right answer is to leave vehicle sharing (including robotaxis) to the poor, the people in hyper-urban places where parking is in extremely short supply, and the occasional travel away from home.
It does look like Zoox is targeting those first two markets.
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