Jux Inc. owns a self-driving startup Amazon.com Inc. has unveiled a fully autonomous electric vehicle without a steering wheel that can be driven day and night at the same charge.
Jukes describes the vehicle as a driverless carriage or robotoxy that can carry up to four passengers. With a motor at each end, it travels in both directions and exits at a speed of 75 miles per hour. Two battery packs, one at the bottom of each row, produce enough juice for 16 hours of run time before recharging, the company said. To commercialize the technology, Jux plans to launch an application-based ride-hello service in cities such as San Francisco and Las Vegas.
“It’s really about re-imagining traffic,” Juke CEO Icha Evans told Bloomberg Television. “Not only do we have the capital we need, we have a long-term vision.”
The company also plans to launch ride-hello services in other countries, Evans said. Administrators did not say how much the rides would cost, but said they would compete with “affordable” and operated services. Uber Technologies Inc. And Lift Inc. Nor did they say when the service would launch, but confirmed that it would not happen in 2021. In a video released Monday, Evans Juke used the app to worship the vehicle outside the Fermont Hotel in San Francisco and spun around the block.
Jux, which was acquired by Amazon in June for an undeclared sum, is one of several companies to put fully autonomous vehicles on the road, an attempt that will take longer than expected. Most test refurbished conventional cars on public roads, and some are used commercially. In October, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving division has launched a full driverless taxi service in the Wemo suburb of Phoenix. General Motors Co-Support Cruise LLC is also testing autonomous cars – recently Without safety drives – in San Francisco, the use of electric vehicles based on the Chevy Bolt.
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Although many years have passed since the deployment, Juke’s humorous-looking mint-green vehicles are already built into a facility in Fremont, California. The plant is expected to eventually produce 10,000 to 15,000 units a year, officials said. The suppliers send the key components – the drive unit, the body, the battery pack and so on – assembled in advance, and Jukes then does the final assembly stages, comparing it to creating a Lego set. Administrators declined to disclose the battery supplier.
The launch of a production car marks a significant step forward for a company that has been working on an autonomous passenger vehicle since its inception in 2014. Jesse Levinson, chief technology officer, told Bloomberg that sometimes jokes are “ridiculed” for what they try to do.
“Unlike many concept cars that other companies have shown over the past several years, this vehicle has surpassed all FMVSS crash tests, ”Levinson said, referring to tests required by US regulators.
Juke was not the first person to launch a fully autonomous passenger vehicle. GM’s Cruise January showed a battery-powered spacecraft. This so-called appearance removes many of the restrictions that exist in regular cars: pedals, rearview mirrors, steering. Cruise plans to commercialize the look with a ride-sharing service and claims it is cheaper to run than a regular car.
Juke’s vehicle is similar but smaller. Each corner has a “sensor pot” with a rotating laser sensor and other lidars and cameras. A pair of front-facing cameras sit on the top of the vehicle, while others have less visible sensors mounted on the sides. The pod in each corner has a 270 degree viewing field so the car can see more than 360 degrees of terrain simultaneously.
The safety features of the vehicle include airbags that form a nest around each passenger in the event of an accident, which is unlikely to give confidence in the technology, Juks says. The company can manually operate vehicles remotely and communicate with passengers in real time. For those who are concerned about privacy, Juke says travelers will have the option of blurring images captured by the on-board camera.
When Amazon acquired Juke, industry observers speculated that the e-commerce agent was ultimately planning to send driverless delivery vehicles. In the interview, Evans said he currently has no plans to do so, but admitted that “sometimes we can move packages”.