Images first shared on Reddit and then on Twitter show the push-me-pull-you vehicle outside the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. By the looks of things, it was being filmed ahead of its official reveal later this month.
— Christian Claus (@Christian1Claus) December 6, 2020 Zoox, perhaps one of the lesser talked about self-driving startups, hasn’t kept its vehicles entirely under wraps, though. Over the past few years it’s made no effort to obscure its test vehicles, which have taken the form of modified SUVs, or its autonomous vehicle platform with no bodywork. Really, with these images, we finally get confirmation over how its bodywork will look. What’s also clear, is that it will have bus-style doors on the side in the middle of the vehicle, which will allow passengers to climb aboard and disembark with ease. [Read: Why AI is the future of home security] With that, it also seems that all passenger seats will face each other, oriented towards the middle of the vehicle. We saw this as a possibility when the company hosted a press day at its HQ, and its VH1 test vehicles had that same layout. Obviously, there is no space for a human driver, because being a self-driving car, it doesn’t need one. Zoox has also teased a reveal video on its YouTube, which gives virtually nothing away, but does show the shape of the headlights and an obscured silhouette. The outline of the vehicle echoes the shape of the vehicle in the images shared on Reddit, so I think we can take those as being representative of what will be unveiled next week. SHIFT is brought to you by Polestar. It’s time to accelerate the shift to sustainable mobility. That is why Polestar combines electric driving with cutting-edge design and thrilling performance. Find out how.