Zoox Plans to Commercialize Robotaxi Business This Year
Amazon’s autonomous vehicle unit, Zoox, is gearing up to launch its robotaxi business in the coming months, with the goal of becoming a major player in the market. The company is testing its purpose-built robotaxis in three cities – Las Vegas, San Francisco, and Foster City, California – and plans to begin offering rides to the public soon.
Zoox co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Jesse Levinson said that the company aims to expand its operating regions and significantly grow its self-driving vehicle fleet from its current couple dozen vehicles by the end of the year. “That’s a lot of work, but we’re excited for that,” Levinson said. “We’re pretty happy with the progress we’ve made.”
The company plans to launch an “Early Rider Program” in Las Vegas before opening it up to the general public later this year. San Francisco, where Zoox began testing in November 2024, will follow. Levinson also hinted at an expansion to Miami, Austin, Texas, and other cities, although a specific timeline was not announced.
Zoox’s robotaxi is a purpose-built vehicle without manual controls such as a steering wheel or pedals. Some have described it as a “box” or “toaster” due to its design. The doors open from the middle, with rows of seats facing each other, and there is no space for a driver.
During a recent test drive, the robotaxi handled well, making turns and driving assertively but not aggressively. The company has been working on driving assertively, as an autonomous vehicle cannot break laws like human drivers, but it also cannot be too cautious or aggressive.
While Zoox’s ambitions are impressive, the company faces stiff competition from Waymo, the US leader in robotaxis, which has been operating driverless ride-hailing services for years. Waymo started offering supervised rides to the public in Arizona in 2017 and unsupervised driverless rides in 2019, and has since expanded to hundreds of autonomous vehicles in four markets.
Sam Abuelsamid, an autonomous expert and vice president of market research at Telemetry Insights, questioned the business model of Zoox and other autonomous vehicle companies, saying that they are still figuring out how to cover costs and make money. “The technology is maturing. It’s still not perfect, but it’s getting better,” Abuelsamid said. “Everybody’s trying to figure out what’s the operating model that will actually be able to cover the cost and make this money.”