Amazon's Zoox Robotaxis Pulled After Smoke Disoriented a Self-Driving Car

Amazon’s autonomous vehicle division, Zoox, has issued a recall for its entire fleet of robotaxis after one of its cars malfunctioned in heavy smoke. The incident occurred when a Zoox vehicle encountered dense smoke from nearby construction, causing its sensors to misinterpret the environment and behave erratically.

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According to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the problem stems from a software glitch. The car’s perception system struggled to distinguish between actual obstacles and particulate matter in the smoke, leading to sudden braking and unexpected lane changes.

No injuries or collisions were reported, but Zoox decided to pull the entire fleet as a precautionary measure. Engineers have since deployed a software update to improve the vehicle’s ability to filter out smoke-related sensor noise.

This isn’t the first hiccup for Zoox, which Amazon acquired in 2020 for over $1 billion. The company has been testing its purpose-built, bidirectional taxis in California, Nevada, and other states. The recall underscores a persistent challenge for autonomous vehicle developers: handling unusual weather or environmental conditions.

Zoox says it will resume testing once the update is fully validated, and no further issues have been reported since the fix was applied.