By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Amazon.com’s self-driving unit Zoox agreed to recall 270 driverless vehicles after an unoccupied robotaxi was involved in an April 8 crash with a passenger car in Las Vegas.
Zoox said on Tuesday there were no injuries in the crash. The Zoox Automated Driving Systems in certain driving scenarios “may make an inaccurate prediction when another vehicle slowly approaches perpendicularly and stops. In these scenarios, the Zoox vehicle may not be able to avoid a crash.”
Zoox paused operations for several days pending a safety review of the incident and developed a software update to address the issue.
Anticipating the passenger car would proceed forward, the Zoox robotaxi slowed down and steered to the right, but the passenger car came to a stop, fully yielding to the Zoox robotaxi and remaining in the shoulder lane, the company said, adding the robotaxi braked hard, but was unable to avoid striking the passenger vehicle.
Zoox said the issue occurs when Zoox vehicles are operating at speeds greater than 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) and a vehicle incrementally encroaches from a perpendicular driveway.
In April, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed a probe into 258 Zoox vehicles over a braking issue after Zoox issued a recall to update their software.
NHTSA opened the probe in May 2024 following two rear-end collisions that injured motorcyclists after the automated vehicles braked unexpectedly.
NHTSA in March 2023 opened a probe into the self-certification by Zoox in 2022 of a robotaxi without traditional driving controls. The investigation remains open.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)
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