Yes, you are correct. Amazon’s self-driving vehicle company, Zoox, is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) following two high-profile crashes involving its autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas. Neither of the incidents resulted in any serious injuries.
The NHTSA stated that the investigations were opened to “check the vehicle and equipment used, the condition of the road and other physical evidence at the crash scene, vehicle crash data recorders, non-vehicle crash data such as videos, police reports and medical records.”
Zoox has been open about the incidents and pledged to cooperate fully with the investigation. This kind of scrutiny is pretty common as regulators work to understand the safety of autonomous vehicles. Zoox isn’t the first self-driving car company to face a federal investigation of this sort. The goal is not only to ensure all rules and regulations are followed, but also to learn from these incidents and improve safety systems for all autonomous vehicles. It’s part of the ongoing global effort to develop self-driving cars that are safe and reliable.
