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Zoox

Subsidiary (Amazon)Founded 2014🇺🇸Foster City, California
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CEO

Aicha Evans

Subsidiary of

Amazon.com, Inc.

Data verified as of Aug 18, 2026

Summary

Zoox is Amazon's robotaxi company and the first operator in the United States cleared to charge fares in a purpose-built driverless vehicle with no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors. NHTSA granted it a two-year exemption from portions of eight Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards on July 30, 2026, capped at 2,500 vehicles a year, and Zoox flipped its roughly 65-vehicle Las Vegas fleet to paid service on August 10, 2026 after nearly a year of free public rides. It designs and builds its bidirectional, four-seat, all-electric robotaxi itself at a Hayward, California plant sized for up to 10,000 vehicles a year, still runs free public rides in San Francisco while it waits on California permits, and has test fleets across ten metros. More than half a million riders have been carried since the Las Vegas launch, and independent app tracking put Zoox at 25% of US robotaxi monthly active users in June 2026, up from 15% in January, while Waymo's share fell from 79% to 69%. The ramp has come with safety scrutiny: a string of software recalls, most recently 105 robotaxis in July 2026 after one drove into a smoke-obscured Las Vegas fire scene.

Main Products

Zoox Robotaxi

Zoox Robotaxi

Active

A ground-up robotaxi rather than a retrofitted car: symmetric and bidirectional, with four-wheel steering, subway-style doors, four face-to-face seats, and no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors in either direction. A 133 kWh battery supports up to 16 hours of operation per charge and a 75 mph top speed, though city operation runs far below that. The version shown on August 4, 2026 is the production model, with an aloe-green and stone-grey interior and reflectors that rotate position and color as the vehicle changes travel direction.

In series production at Hayward, California and carrying paying riders in Las Vegas since August 10, 2026.

Seating4 passengers, face to face
Battery and Endurance133 kWh, up to 16 hours of operation per charge
Top Speed75 mph design capability, limited well below that in city service
Regulatory StatusExempt from portions of eight FMVSS under a two-year NHTSA Part 555 grant, up to 2,500 vehicles a year
Zoox Ride-Hailing Service

Zoox Ride-Hailing Service

Active

The app-booked robotaxi service itself. Paid in Las Vegas since August 10, 2026 across the Strip and downtown; free to the public in San Francisco, where Zoox still lacks the California permits needed to charge; and in early-rider phases in Austin and Miami. More than half a million riders have been carried since the September 2025 Las Vegas opening.

Commercial in Las Vegas, free public service in San Francisco, early riders in Austin and Miami, testing in six more metros.

Paid Markets1 (Las Vegas)
Riders Served500,000+ since September 2025
US Robotaxi App Share25% of monthly active users, June 2026 (Apptopia)

Zoox AI Driver and Fusion Centers

Active

The autonomy stack plus the human infrastructure behind it. Zoox Fusion Centers are the hubs where teleguidance, mission control, and rider support monitor the fleet and talk vehicles through situations they cannot resolve alone, as when a teleoperator reversed a robotaxi out of a smoke-obscured Las Vegas fire scene in June 2026. New markets are mapped first by retrofitted Toyota Highlander test vehicles with safety drivers before purpose-built robotaxis are introduced.

Fusion Centers operating alongside every market, including a Scottsdale, Arizona center opened with the Phoenix expansion in March 2026.

Autonomous Miles1M+ as of March 2026
Recalls Since 2025Several software recalls, most recently 105 vehicles in July 2026 over heavy-smoke handling at emergency scenes

What's Next

Win California permits and start charging in San Francisco

The NHTSA exemption cleared the federal barrier to charging fares, but California adds its own: Zoox needs driverless deployment permits from both the DMV and the CPUC before it can charge in San Francisco, where it has run free public rides since November 2025 and quadrupled its service area in March 2026. This is the single largest swing factor in Zoox's commercial ramp, since San Francisco is its home market and the one where it competes head to head with Waymo.

2026-2027

Open Austin and Miami to public riders

Both cities were named as service markets on March 24, 2026 and started with rides limited to Zoox employees plus friends and family, with an Austin waitlist and Explorers early-rider access to follow. Converting them into open public service, and then into paid service, is the next test of whether Zoox's city-by-city playbook scales beyond Las Vegas.

2026-2027

Ramp Hayward output toward 100 robotaxis per week

The Hayward plant opened in 2025 building roughly one robotaxi a day against a design capacity of about three an hour, or 10,000 a year. Zoox says it is stepping output up toward as many as 100 vehicles a week, and in May 2026 leased an additional 10.2-acre, 34,000-square-foot site on Clawiter Road as a logistics and staging hub for finished vehicles. Fleet supply, not demand, is the constraint on multi-city commercial service.

2026-2027

Turn Phoenix and Dallas testing into rider service

Zoox began mapping Phoenix and Dallas with safety-driver Highlanders on March 9, 2026 and opened robotaxi depots in both plus a Fusion Center in Scottsdale. Neither has a public service date. Both are markets where Waymo already carries paying riders, so they are the clearest read on how fast Zoox can close the footprint gap.

2027

Convert the temporary exemption into a durable federal framework

The Part 555 grant that lets Zoox charge fares expires July 31, 2028 and caps deployment at 2,500 vehicles a year, which is below the Hayward plant's design capacity. NHTSA framed the grant as part of a broader push to build an autonomous-vehicle framework rather than a one-off, and Zoox says it is coordinating with the agency on full approval of the platform. Watch whether a permanent rule arrives before the exemption lapses, and whether the recall record, including the July 2026 fire-scene recall, affects renewal.

By July 31, 2028

Track Record

2 of 2 announced dates hit

Begin charging fares in Las Vegas

Target Early 2026 · Resolved Aug 10, 2026

Paid rides began August 10, 2026 across the Las Vegas Strip and downtown, with the entire local fleet of roughly 65 robotaxis moving to commercial service. It landed several months later than the early-2026 guidance Zoox gave in December 2025, gated on the NHTSA exemption that did not arrive until July 30, 2026.

Hit

Win federal approval to charge for rides in a purpose-built robotaxi

Target 2026 · Resolved Jul 30, 2026

NHTSA granted Zoox a temporary Part 555 exemption on July 30, 2026 from portions of eight FMVSS written around a human driver, effective July 31, 2026 through July 31, 2028 and capped at 2,500 vehicles a year. It is the first federal clearance for a paid commercial service in a vehicle with no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors.

Hit

Recent News

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Operations & Revenue

StatusOperational

Commercial paid robotaxi service in Las Vegas since August 10, 2026 on a fleet of roughly 65 purpose-built vehicles, plus free public service in San Francisco, early-rider programmes in Austin and Miami, and test fleets across ten metros. Vehicles are built in-house at Hayward, California, where the line is sized for up to 10,000 a year and is being ramped toward 100 a week. Federal clearance to charge fares comes from a two-year NHTSA Part 555 exemption capped at 2,500 vehicles annually and expiring July 31, 2028; charging in California additionally requires DMV and CPUC driverless deployment permits Zoox does not yet hold. Safety oversight is active: NHTSA has logged 123 accidents in autonomous mode as of March 2026, and Zoox has issued several software recalls, the latest covering 105 vehicles in July 2026 after a robotaxi entered a smoke-obscured Las Vegas fire scene.

Revenue Streams

Robotaxi Fares (Las Vegas)

Zoox's only revenue-generating stream today. Fares combine a base charge with per-mile and per-minute components, quoted and locked in before booking, plus disclosed destination surcharges for the airport and venues such as the Sphere and T-Mobile Arena. Pricing is positioned in the comfort tier of conventional ride-hail apps.

Key Metrics

Employees

~2,200 (most recent public figure, 2023; Zoox does not disclose current headcount and Amazon does not break it out)

Est. Annual Revenue

Effectively pre-revenue. Every Zoox ride was free until August 10, 2026, when Las Vegas fares began; Amazon does not break out Zoox revenue in its filings and no run-rate has been disclosed.

Paid Service Markets

1 (Las Vegas, since August 10, 2026). San Francisco rides remain free pending California DMV and CPUC driverless deployment permits; Austin and Miami are in early-rider phases

Test Markets

10 (San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Phoenix, Dallas) as of March 2026

Riders Served

500,000+ since the September 2025 Las Vegas launch, all free until August 10, 2026

Autonomous Miles

1M+ (disclosed March 2026; no newer cumulative figure published as of mid-August 2026)

Las Vegas Fleet

~65 robotaxis, the entire local fleet, moved to paid service on August 10, 2026

Federal Deployment Cap

2,500 vehicles per year under the NHTSA Part 555 exemption, effective July 31, 2026 through July 31, 2028

US Robotaxi App Share

25% of US robotaxi app monthly active users in June 2026, up from 15% in January 2026 (Apptopia); Waymo fell from 79% to 69% over the same period and Tesla's user base was roughly flat

Production Capacity

Hayward, California plant designed for up to 10,000 robotaxis a year (about three per hour); output was roughly one per day at opening in 2025 and is being ramped toward 100 vehicles a week

Timeline

2026Testing expands to Phoenix and Dallas, ten markets in all

Zoox adds Phoenix and Dallas on March 9, 2026, bringing its test footprint to ten markets alongside the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. It opens robotaxi depots in both cities plus a Fusion Center in Scottsdale, and discloses more than 1 million autonomous miles and over 300,000 riders served.

2026Austin and Miami added, San Francisco footprint quadrupled

On March 24, 2026 Zoox names Austin and Miami as its next service cities and quadruples its San Francisco operating area to cover the Marina, North Beach, Chinatown, Pacific Heights, and the Embarcadero corridor, while more than doubling Las Vegas destinations to include the Sphere, T-Mobile Arena, and the convention center.

2026105 robotaxis recalled over an emergency fire scene

On June 20, 2026 an unoccupied Zoox robotaxi drove into heavy smoke obscuring an active, un-coned Las Vegas fire scene, braked hard, and had to be reversed out by a teleoperator. Zoox notified NHTSA on July 8 and issued an over-the-air software recall covering 105 vehicles, disclosed July 17, after regulators found its driving system lacked adequate logic for interpreting heavy smoke at emergency scenes. It landed days after NHTSA's administrator directed AV developers to keep clear of first responders.

2026First federal commercial exemption for a purpose-built robotaxi

NHTSA grants Zoox a temporary Part 555 exemption on July 30, 2026, effective July 31, 2026 through July 31, 2028, from portions of eight Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards written around a human driver (103, 104, 108, 111, 135, 201, 205, and 208). It allows up to 2,500 vehicles a year and is the first federal clearance for a paid commercial service in a vehicle with no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors.

2026Production-spec robotaxi unveiled

On August 4, 2026 Zoox shows the version that becomes its official production model: an aloe-green and stone-grey interior chosen to reduce visual distraction and survive urban wear, and exterior reflectors that rotate position and color when the bidirectional vehicle changes travel direction. Hayward is being built out toward 100 vehicles a week.

2026Paid rides begin in Las Vegas

Zoox starts charging fares across the Las Vegas Strip and downtown on August 10, 2026, transitioning its entire local fleet of roughly 65 robotaxis to commercial service. Pricing is a base fare plus per-mile and per-minute components quoted and locked in before booking, positioned in the comfort tier of conventional ride-hail, with disclosed surcharges for the airport and high-traffic venues.

2026Safety Case Framework published

Two days after fares started, on August 12, 2026, Zoox published the methodology behind its safety conclusions rather than simply asserting that its vehicles are safe. The framework covers the driving software, the vehicle, and the people and processes running the fleet, and reduces the combined risk to a single predicted rate of collision, injury, and fatality events expressed as miles per event. It gives regulators and outside researchers something concrete to examine, though it reflects Zoox's own assumptions rather than any independent certification, and it landed weeks after the July fire-scene recall.

2025Hayward production plant opens

Zoox opens a 219,000-square-foot robotaxi assembly plant in Hayward, California, initially building roughly one robotaxi a day with the line designed to reach about three per hour, or 10,000 vehicles a year, at full scale.

2025Public robotaxi service opens in Las Vegas, free of charge

On September 10, 2025 Zoox becomes the first company to open a purpose-built robotaxi service to the general public in Las Vegas. Rides are free, since federal rules did not yet allow fares to be charged in a vehicle without manual controls. A San Francisco Explorers programme follows on November 18, 2025.

2023First purpose-built robotaxi to carry passengers on open public roads

On February 11, 2023 Zoox runs its employee shuttle between two Foster City buildings on public roads, the first time a purpose-built robotaxi with no traditional driving controls carried passengers outside a closed course.

2020Amazon acquires Zoox

Amazon buys Zoox outright on June 26, 2020 for more than $1.2 billion, keeping it as a wholly owned subsidiary with its own brand, leadership, and product roadmap rather than folding it into Amazon logistics.

2020Purpose-built robotaxi unveiled

Zoox reveals its bidirectional, four-wheel-steering robotaxi in December 2020: a 133 kWh battery good for up to 16 hours of operation, a 75 mph top speed, four face-to-face seats, and no steering wheel, pedals, or driver position in either direction.

2019Aicha Evans becomes CEO

Intel's former chief strategy officer Aicha Evans joins as CEO in January 2019, shifting the company from research programme toward a manufactured, commercially deployable product.

2014Zoox founded to build a robotaxi from scratch

Australian designer Tim Kentley-Klay and Stanford autonomy researcher Jesse Levinson found Zoox on July 29, 2014, with the thesis that a driverless ride-hailing vehicle should be designed from the ground up rather than retrofitted from a consumer car. The name comes from zooxanthellae, the algae that power coral reefs.

Funding

RoundDateAmountInvestorsSource
Venture rounds (private, pre-acquisition)2014-2018$800MPrivate venture investors across seed through Series B; last private valuation reported at $3.2B in July 2018
Acquisition by AmazonJune 2020$1.2B+Amazon.com, Inc. (100% owner); funded from Amazon's balance sheet since

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