As most of the tests carried out in recent times in the field of four wheels show, driverless cars could be safer than those that are driven by people. However, this does not mean that autonomous vehicles do not need to offer protection to their passengers against collisions.
In this line, Zoox, the autonomous driving technology company owned by Amazon, has shown some rare images in this segment about the safety features of its particular driverless vehicle. Let’s remember that Zoox plans to offer robotaxi services using electric cars with a shape similar to a minibus that do not have a steering wheel or pedals.
The Amazon start-up has already applied for a permit to test its autonomous vehicles in the US state of California. In fact, last February Zoox began its first tests of this type on a short-distance public route between two office buildings located in the Californian city of Foster City.
It is by no means the only company that is well positioned when it comes to officially launching robotaxis services. Waymo (owned by Google) and Cruise (owned by General Motors) are just a few of the companies pursuing similar goals with their own self-driving cars.
In principle, autonomous vehicles promise a higher level of safety, largely eliminating human error in driving. While that may be true, so is the fact that some driverless cars are still involved in accidents. According to many experts, accidents will begin to drop considerably when most vehicles on the roads are autonomous.
Until that happens, the robotic taxis that will start their activities in the near future must offer their passengers a high level of protection. Zoox robotaxis face certain specific challenges compared to traditional cars, as they do not have a conventional front dash from which to deploy the airbags.
These autonomous vehicles can drive in any direction (which would be forward or reverse in a normal car) and their passengers sit on two sidewalks facing each other. Due to these particularities, Zoox has designed a solution to deploy the airbags from the roof of the car.
This horseshoe airbag system (as the manufacturer calls it) envelops passengers, protecting them from frontal and side collisions. This is complemented by two front airbags for each row of occupants, in order to guarantee that all passengers are protected and do not hit each other in the event of a collision.
Another peculiarity of Zoox robotaxis is that their exterior design does not leave much room for deformable body and chassis parts. To gain space, an effort has been made to integrate the components of the electrical system as far into the vehicle platform as possible. This makes it possible to better absorb possible impacts and disperse their force before they reach the passenger area.
In the video that accompanies this article, you can appreciate the safety features that the company has integrated into its robotaxis to protect its passengers in the most severe crashes. After the first computer simulations and crash tests with the first prototypes, the time has come to put the current generation to the test, incorporating all the improvements after analyzing the previous results.
