San Francisco, Jun 26 (IANS): Amazon is set to spend over $1 billion to acquire self-driving car startup Zoox, The Information reported.

The deal could be officially announced as early as Friday.

The news comes after The Wall Street Journal said in a report last month that Zoox and Amazon were in advanced talks.

The deal could be of immense significance to the e-commerce giant which has been experimenting with new technologies to make its delivery services faster and more efficient.

However, in its report on Thursday, The Information, which cited people with knowledge of the deal, said it was not clear whether Amazon plans to use the Zoox deal to build a fleet of self-driving delivery vehicles or not.

According to the company bio, California-headquartered Zoox "is applying the latest in automotive, robotics and renewable energy to design a symmetrical, bidirectional, zero-emissions vehicle from the ground up to solve the unique challenges of autonomous mobility."

The news of its acquisition by Amazon follows reports that Zoox had been finding it hard to secure fresh funding in the wake of the disruptions caused by Covid-19, SmartCompany reported.