Amazon has confirmed its purchase of Zoox, a company designing self-driving vehicles that are purpose-built for ride-hailing functions. While Amazon did not disclose how much it was paying for the California-based company, sources including Reuters and The Wall Street Journal put the price tag at more than $1.2 billion.
Zoox was founded in 2014 with a vision of purpose-built, zero emissions vehicles designed for autonomous ride-hailing, along with an end-to-end autonomy software stack. The Zoox vehicles will focus on the ride-hailing customer’s experience. Zoox CEO Aicha Evans and Jesse Levinson, Co-Founder and CTO, will continue to lead the company as a stand-alone business.
“Zoox is working to imagine, invent, and design a world-class autonomous ride-hailing experience,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO, Worldwide Consumer for Amazon. “Like Amazon, Zoox is passionate about innovation and about its customers, and we’re excited to help the talented Zoox team to bring their vision to reality in the years ahead.”
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