Zoox robotaxis to roam in more San Francisco areas and new cities
Bay Area-based robotaxi company Zoox is trying to get ahead of the competition with a significant expansion in San Francisco and Las Vegas and plans to launch in Austin, Texas and Miami.
Zoox will quadruple its service area in San Francisco starting this spring, expanding rides to the eastern half of the city, including the Marina District, North Beach, Chinatown and Pacific Heights neighborhoods. The Amazon-backed company has been offering free rides to the public in San Francisco since November.
Zoox’s radius was previously limited to the SoMa, Mission and Design District neighborhoods.
In Las Vegas, riders will soon be able to take a Zoox vehicle to the Sphere, Las Vegas Convention Center and T-Mobile Arena. Zoox launched in Las Vegas last year, offering free rides to limited destinations along the Strip.
The company this month announced a partnership with Uber that will make Zoox vehicles available through the Uber app in Las Vegas this summer and in Los Angeles starting in mid-2027. It is also preparing to launch service to and from Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
“This expansion marks a significant step forward for Zoox,” Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said in a statement. “We are actively implementing learnings to confidently and safely scale our robotaxi service across the country. »
In less than a year, Zoox has traveled nearly 2 million miles autonomously and carried more than 350,000 passengers, the company said. Its eyes are on Austin and Miami, where it has been testing since 2024. The company said a waiting list for Zoox rides would open in both cities later this year.
Its major expansion in San Francisco will allow Zoox to serve more passengers and more easily compete with Waymo, the Alphabet-owned robotaxi company with a fleet of retrofitted Jaguars taking over the Bay Area.
Zoox has a fleet of about 100, a company spokesperson said, but it has not disclosed how many are in California. Waymo has more than 1,500 vehicles across the country.
Waymo has expanded its service area to San Francisco in recent years and established a presence in nine other major cities, including Los Angeles and Austin. In the robotaxi enthusiast race, Waymo is currently in the lead.
Tesla launched robot taxi services in Austin last year, and Uber has several partnerships to bring new robot taxis to the roads, including with Volkswagen and electric vehicle maker Lucid.
Zoox debuted in 2014 and was acquired by Amazon for $1.3 billion in 2020. Its specially designed robotaxis differs from other self-driving cars on the road, which are retrofitted passenger cars. Zoox robotaxis do not have an accelerator pedal, steering wheel or other driver controls, and passengers sit facing each other inside the cabin.
