An Overview of the Zoox Smart Automatic Thermal Control Design-- An Autonomous Electric Taxi

Proper thermal system control design can lead to enhanced vehicle battery economy, range, reliability, longevity, passenger comfort, and safety in an electric vehicle; advancements in thermal control design remain key as "new technologies, consumer demand, societal concerns, and government regulations emerge and evolve" [1]. This paper is an overview of the thermal control design used by autonomous, electric robotaxi start-up company -- Zoox. Different than many other traditional vehicle thermal control designs, the entire thermal system in the Zoox design features intelligence, robustness, energy efficiency, safety, and high performance to meet Zoox’s spirit of a rider focused taxi. Discussion of the challenges and solutions together with the high-level control design strategies are presented in the paper.