More Autonomous Vehicles in San Francisco

Zoox Bidirectional Prototype Testing

I had seen the Zoox Bidirectional vehicles being tested near my house a while back. After that I opted to go see their more conventional vehicle test program. I found an article from Forbes Magazine that gave some hints where to find them:

"A block from San Francisco’s Embarcadero waterfront is a place you’re not supposed to notice. The little two-story building has no sign out front. Not even a street number affixed to its gray brick walls. Every window and door contains shaded glass, and a black, razor-wire-topped fence obscures its parking lot.
Welcome to the San Francisco testing site of Zoox, one of the most secretive startups in the booming world of autonomous driving"
Hmmm.... could this be Zoox SF test facility?

So I did my usual paparazzi stake out.

Zoox autonomous Toyota Highlander overtaking double parked delivery van
For reasons I'm not sure of the black Toyota Highlanders had their logos removed and were painted matte black. Like somehow that would make a big car with a huge Lidar rack invisible.

The white Zoox Highlanders had their logos removed, but normal glossy paint
The white Highlanders had the logos removed but had normal glossy paint.

Zoox also is testing Lincoln MK V sedans
The Zoox Lincoln MK Z's have no logos as well.

I'm not sure why the Lincolns are so popular with self driving car testing, but I've found a number of companies are using them. 
Unidentified Autonomous Lincoln in NIO parking Lot
Roadstar.ai Self Driving Lincoln Tested on the Streets of Silicon Valley
Baidu Self Driving Vehicles, Sunnyvale, Silicon Valley
Baidu Silicon Valley Autonomous Vehicles




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