US Grants Exemption for Zoox Self-Driving Vehicles, Ends Safety Probe
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has certified Amazon’s (AMZN.O) self-driving unit Zoox vehicles for demonstration use and closed its investigation into whether the vehicles complied with federal safety standards.
The agency began probing in 2022 after questions arose about whether Zoox’s purpose-built autonomous vehicles, which lack traditional driving controls like steering wheels and brake pedals, met federal safety requirements under the company’s self-certification.
In June, Zoox applied for an exemption from some regulatory requirements, which NHTSA granted, allowing the vehicles to operate legally on U.S. public roads under this exemption. The agency also required Zoox to remove any claims that their vehicles fully comply with applicable federal motor vehicle standards.
The Trump administration had signaled in June an intent to accelerate approvals for self-driving vehicle exemptions, following stalled proposals by General Motors and Ford to deploy vehicles without steering wheels and pedals.
In May, Zoox recalled 270 driverless vehicles after an unoccupied robotaxi was involved in a crash in Las Vegas due to a scenario where the automated system might misjudge another vehicle approaching perpendicularly and failing to stop, potentially causing collisions. Zoox paused operations briefly, conducted a safety review, and deployed a software update to fix the issue.
NHTSA also closed a related probe from May 2024 into 258 Zoox vehicles after a software update resolved a braking problem that led to two rear-end collisions involving motorcyclists.