Amazon’s Zoox plans robotaxi launch in Austin and Miami

Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox is expanding its robotaxi operations to Austin, Texas and Miami, Florida. The company announced on Tuesday that it plans to start offering rides in both locations later this year as part of its early-rider program. The expansion follows almost two years of operating its test vehicles in those cities.

Alongside the new cities, Zoox is expanding its service areas in San Francisco and Las Vegas. In San Francisco, the service area is quadrupling in size to focus on the eastern half of the city for its early-rider program. In Las Vegas, where free rides are available to anyone using the Zoox app, the company is doubling its destinations to include locations such as The Sphere, T-Mobile Arena, and the Las Vegas Convention Center. Zoox is also preparing for future service by testing its robotaxis at the Las Vegas airport. To date, Zoox, an autonomous vehicle company, stated its vehicles have driven nearly two million autonomous miles and carried “over 350,000 riders.” Based on rider feedback, Zoox is introducing new features, including a Bluetooth audio connectivity feature called ZooxCast and a Find My Zoox feature to help riders locate hailed vehicles.

Currently, Zoox can only offer free rides to customers because of federal restrictions it is working to remove. To transition to paid commercial services, the company must secure exemptions from certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the US regulator, began taking public comments this month on Zoox’s application for these exemptions. To prepare for commercial operations, Zoox also announced a partnership with Uber to make its robotaxis available on Uber’s network in Las Vegas later this year.

While Zoox scales, it faces competition from Waymo, which plans to launch commercial services in 20 new cities globally this year. Zoox has recently started mapping streets in Dallas and Phoenix ahead of testing in those cities. The company is already testing its vehicles in Washington, D.C., Seattle, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

Why it matters

Zoox is transitioning from a testing phase toward a commercial business model, but its ability to scale paid services hinges on securing federal regulatory approvals and competing with established rivals like Waymo.