Amazon has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to buy Zoox, an early developer of autonomous vehicles, marking the entrance of one of the world’s most deep-pocketed companies in the long race to develop driverless cars, according to people with knowledge of the deal. 

The deal, which could be announced as early as Friday, would give Amazon control of a nearly 1,000-person startup that has designed a prototype vehicle to ferry passengers in urban areas. It couldn’t be learned whether Amazon also intends to use Zoox to automate vehicles that deliver goods to customers. Amazon has already begun experimenting with such technologies, from package-toting robots that travel on sidewalks to drones that bring orders to customers from the air.