Zoox’s purpose-built robotaxis with no steering wheel or pedals are now driving on public roads in Las Vegas.

The rides are available exclusively to Zoox employees between the company’s two main buildings at its headquarters in Foster City, CA. 

Zoox’s upgraded testing fleet is paving the way for its purpose-built autonomous vehicle to start rolling out onto roads.

Amazon gave a look at how the Zoox vehicle is able to make predictions about its surroundings up to eight seconds into the future.

With the acquisition, Zoox brings Strio’s co-founder and CEO Ruijie He on as director of perception, along with other top engineers.

In 2020, autonomous vehicles left other technology applications in the dust. Other areas of robotics receiving funding or merger and acquisition activity included supply chain automation, surgical robots, and quadrupeds.

In June 2020, autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and mobile robots benefitted from an uptick in funding.

Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to acquire self-driving startup Zoox but didn’t say whether it would focus on autonomous vehicles for delivery or transporting ride-hailing passengers.

The big winners in October 2019 robotics transactions were in transportation and healthcare, but agriculture, AI, and logistics were also well-represented.

Investment into robotics and intelligent systems companies for July 2018 was robust, totaling approximately $1.6B worldwide from 34 investments into the same number of companies. In June 2018, 27 robotics startups raised $2.1 billion. The bulk of the July 2018 investments were made into companies developing software and hardware technologies and products, along with services…