Zoox has grounded its autonomous test fleet in Atlanta after safety drivers reported lightheadedness, nausea and vomiting inside its vehicles, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday. A letter from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the Amazon-owned company said as many as 40 workers may have been exposed to carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or hydrogen sulphide. Zoox says the number is lower, and has identified 28 employees who rode in six test vehicles with what it called an unexplained odour.
The incidents began in early August, with acute cases on 14 August, and continued until 22 August, when a sick worker prompted a 911 call. Emergency room doctors told some workers their symptoms were consistent with carbon monoxide exposure. Ten employees voluntarily underwent medical evaluation, and Zoox told OSHA it had received one medical report identifying carbon dioxide exposure and had detected only carbon dioxide in the affected vehicles. OSHA opened an inquiry after a worker complaint and has since closed it.
Zoox says it tested the vehicles’ exhaust systems, ran smoke tests for leaks into the cabin, and removed and inspected their 12-volt batteries. It told OSHA it will fit monitors capable of detecting carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide. The company also runs vehicles in Las Vegas and San Francisco and is expanding to other cities, so the findings matter beyond one test fleet.
What Zoox has not said is what it found. Its account does not say whether the exhaust or battery checks turned up a fault, or which gas, if any, reached the cabins in concentrations that could explain the symptoms. For people who spend full shifts inside these vehicles, a closed OSHA file and a new sensor are not the same thing as a cause.
