Amazon’s Zoox recalls self-driving vehicles amid emergency response issues

The Amazon subsidiary company Zoox has said that it will ⁠recall its fleet of 105 autonomous vehicles in the United States.

The technology company announced the recall on Friday due to mounting concerns that the vehicles may not detect heavy smoke and could impede emergency personnel.

Last week, the top ⁠US car safety official said self-driving car companies must quickly address a “clear pattern” of driverless vehicles interfering with law enforcement and other first responders that had ⁠raised significant safety concerns.

Zoox said on Friday that on June 20 an unoccupied Zoox autonomous vehicle encountered heavy smoke that obscured an active emergency fire scene.

The Zoox vehicle entered the scene, then braked hard while attempting to steer away, before ‌coming to a stop. The Zoox vehicle, under teleguidance, reversed, after which first responders placed traffic cones at the scene, blocking two of the three lanes.

Zoox said a new software update intends to enhance the existing capability of detecting and responding to heavy smoke.

Jonathan Morrison, who heads the US vehicle regulatory agency, said in a letter to autonomous vehicle (AV) companies that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has documented multiple instances of ⁠robotaxis driving into active emergency scenes.

The letter also mentioned other incidents ⁠when the vehicles “blocked the paths of ambulances and firefighters, or failed to recognize and respond to basic safety conditions like flashing lights, flares, smoke, fire, and traffic cones.”

NHTSA said it would schedule ⁠meetings with vehicle developers by the end of the month to solicit solutions.

“An AV that cannot safely interact with ⁠first responders is a danger to the general public,” ⁠Morrison said in the letter.

In late May, local media in Dallas reported that a Waymo self-driving vehicle partially blocked a route fire trucks were using to get to an apartment building on fire.

Other ‌videos have shown Waymo vehicles blocking an ambulance and driving through an active police scene.

The NHTSA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating various incidents ‌involving self-driving vehicles, including Waymo vehicles passing stopped school buses with their lights activated in violation of Texas state law.