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TECHNOLOGY Tuesday 30 June 2020
Amazon looks to self-driving future by acquiring Zoox

By JOSEPH PISANI and that lets people start busi- also working on self-piloted
TOM KRISHER nesses that deliver packag- drones that fly small goods
AP Business Writers es in vans stamped with the to customers' homes.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon Amazon logo. The invest- The deal comes at a time
said Friday that it is buy- ment could complement when the power of Ama-
ing self-driving technology the $700 million that Ama- zon and other technology
company Zoox, which is de- zon put into electric ve- stalwarts such as Google,
veloping an autonomous hicle startup Rivian in 2019. Facebook and Apple
vehicle for a ride-hailing Rivian, with operations in have drawn increasing
service that people would suburban Detroit and Cali- scrutiny from U.S. lawmak-
request on their phones. fornia, has a contract to ers and antitrust regulators.
Seattle-based Amazon did make 100,000 electric de- The pandemic-stricken
not disclose how much it is livery vans for Amazon. The economy is making it more
paying for Zoox, which was company also has a fac- difficult for startups to raise
founded six years ago in tory in Normal, Ill., with ex- money to continue work,
Foster City, California. Ana- This Sept. 6, 2012, file photo, shows the Amazon logo in Santa tra capacity that could be creating opportunities for
lysts pegged the purchase Monica, Calif. used to build the Zoox ve- the industry's still-thriving gi-
price at over $1 billion. Associated Press hicles for Amazon, Abuel- ants to make acquisitions
The online retailing giant vans," said Sam Abuel- ity as a service by devel- samid said. at bargain prices.q
said Zoox will keep running samid, principal analyst for oping a fully autonomous, Amazon's acquisition
as a separate business and Guidehouse Insights, who purpose built vehicle." changes the landscape in
continue to develop its follows autonomous vehi- The company cautioned the autonomous vehicle
own autonomous vehicle. cle developments. that widespread use of business by bringing in a
"We're excited to help the Abuelsamid said Zoox has a autonomous vehicles is still deep-pocketed competi-
talented Zoox team to good autonomous system years away and will require tor, Abuelsamid said. It in-
bring their vision to reality in and was planning to de- a substantial capital invest- creases pressure on smaller
the years ahead," said Am- ploy a ride-hailing service ment in a crowded field. companies that are build-
azon's Jeff Wilke, who runs next year. It's also building The deal puts Amazon, ing delivery vehicles, he
the company's retail busi- its own vehicle that can which has grown rapidly said.
ness. The deal could drive travel in two directions — from its start as an online The Zoox acquisition isn't
Amazon into an entirely both ends can be the front bookseller 25 years ago, in Amazon's first foray into au-
new business: transporting and the back — making it competition with Google's tonomous vehicles. Early in
people from one place to ideal for urban deliveries. self-driving technology spi- 2019, it joined other inves-
another. But some industry He sees Amazon convert- noff called Waymo, and tors in a $530 million stake
analysts think Amazon's ul- ing the small vehicles into General Motors' Cruise au- in Aurora Innovation. Au-
timate goal is to repurpose mobile lockers that would tonomous vehicle unit. rora recently has focused
the Zoox vehicle for its core stop at delivery sites for Autonomous delivery on a self-driving system for
business, delivering pack- people to pick up pack- would fit with Amazon's heavy trucks.
ages to shoppers. ages. plans to deliver more of its Amazon has used autono-
"My guess would be in the Amazon didn't directly packages on its own and mous technology to get or-
near term that Amazon is answer a question about rely less on UPS and the U.S. ders to shoppers: self-driv-
probably more interested whether autonomous Postal Service. In recent ing robots shuffle products
in taking that platform and package delivery is its goal, years it has expanded its around its warehouses and
adapting it as an alterna- but said Zoox would "con- fleet of planes, built pack- a cooler-sized robot with
tive or complement to its tinue working toward their age sorting hubs at airports six wheels has delivered or-
existing fleet of delivery mission to transform mobil- and launched a program ders in a Seattle suburb. It's

Reddit, Twitch clamp down Trumpist forums for hate speech

By TALI ARBEL deal with hate speech on
AP Technology Writer their platforms.
Reddit, an online com- A growing number of large
ment forum that is one of advertisers have said they
the internet’s most popu- are pausing social-media
lar websites, on Monday spending after a cam-
banned a forum that sup- paign by a group of civil-
ported President-Donald rights and other groups
Trump as part of a crack- called for an ad boycott
down on hate speech. of Facebook, saying it has
The Trump forum, called failed to curb racist and
The_Donald, was banned violent content and misin-
because it encouraged formation.
violence, regularly broke This Monday, June 29, 2020 photo shows the Reddit logo on a On Monday, Ford Motor
other Reddit rules, and mobile device in New York. Co. put the brakes on all
defiantly “antagonized” Associated Press national social media ad-
both Reddit and other fo- vertising for the next 30
rums, the company said in ald was part of a larger as the site as “subreddits,” days. The company says
a statement. Reddit had purge at the San Francis- most of which it said were hate speech, as well as
previously tried to disci- co-based site. The compa- inactive or had few users. violent and racial injustice
pline the forum. Reddit’s ny said it took down a to- Social-media companies content need to be eradi-
action against The_Don- tal of 2,000 forums, known have long struggled to cated from the sites. q