Amazon’s self-driving taxi subsidiary Zoox issued its second voluntary software recall in just one month after a collision with an e-scooter pedestrian in San Francisco.
In early May, a person riding an electric scooter rammed into an unoccupied Zoox robotaxi that stopped while turning to yield at an intersection. The rider sustained minor injuries after falling to the ground beside the robotaxi and declined medical assistance, Zoox said in a blog post.
“The Zoox vehicle was stopped at the time of contact. The e-scooterist fell to the ground directly next to the vehicle. The robotaxi then began to move and stopped after completing the turn, but did not make further contact with the e-scooterist,” the company wrote.
The recall will focus on tackling the vehicle’s perception tracking system and will impact 270 vehicles, Zoox said in a statement.
As part of the recall, the company will tackle a part within the automated driving system that could push it to misunderstand the movement of other nearby vehicles, including the “risk of a crash.”
The company also noted that it submitted a voluntary software recall report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday.
In turn, the NHTSA confirmed it had received the report and recommends “road users to be cautious in the vicinity of vehicles because drivers may incorrectly predict the travel path of a cyclist or a scooter rider or come to an unexpected stop.”
The May collision took place just two weeks after Zoox had already announced a voluntary software recall aimed at addressing a minor crash in Las Vegas that also stemmed from a yield misunderstanding.
In May 2024, the self-driving taxis were investigated by the NHTSA following two rear-end collisions in broad daylight. Before that, the NHTSA opened a probe in March 2023 looking into Zoox’s self-certification of a robotaxi without traditional driving controls.
Amazon first purchased the tech startup in 2020 for $1.2 billion, including an extra $100 million to retain a majority of the 900-plus employees. The company’s estimated value peaked at a whopping $3.2 billion in 2018.
