Zoox

Claims ledger

Public, dated claims by Zoox, each tracked against the evidence. Status is a DEPLOY assessment from primary sources: verified means an independent source confirms it; contradicted means one refutes it; open means the outcome is not yet determinable. Every entry keeps its verbatim quote and source so you can check the call yourself.

• Partly trueTimeline · claimed 2026-04-01

  “NHTSA seeks public comment on Zoox FMVSS exemption petition for autonomous vehicles”

  NHTSA opened public comment period for Zoox's FMVSS exemption petition. Zoox's purpose-built vehicle needs an FMVSS exemption because it has no steering wheel, pedals, or mirrors. The petition is still under review. https://www.nhtsa.gov/

  claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim
• OpenTimeline · claimed 2026-03-24 · deadline 2026-12-31

  “Amazon Zoox to debut robotaxi rides in Austin and Miami”

  Zoox announced expansion to Austin and Miami. As of July 2026, no confirmed launch of paid rides in these cities. Zoox's purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel) faces more regulatory hurdles than Waymo's modified Jaguar. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/24/amazon-zoox-robotaxi-rides-austin-miami.html

  claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim
• Partly trueCustomer · claimed 2026-01-01

  “Zoox has launched a limited, free-ride service for employees”

  Zoox is operating free rides for employees in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Paid public rides launched in Las Vegas (earlier research confirmed). "Limited" is accurate — Zoox's public deployment is narrower than Waymo's. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/24/amazon-zoox-robotaxi-rides-austin-miami.html

  claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim
• Partly trueCapacity · claimed 2026-01-01

  “The fleet handles ~250,000 paid rides weekly”

  This figure likely aggregates multiple robotaxi operators (Waymo + Zoox + others). Zoox's own ride volume is smaller than Waymo's. The 250K weekly rides for the industry is plausible but not attributable to Zoox alone. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/24/amazon-zoox-robotaxi-rides-austin-miami.html

  claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim

Disagree with a status? Zoox can submit a correction with evidence and we log the response on the record. Methodology and the full industry ledger live at /stats/claim-integrity.

Explainers

Plain-language answers to the questions people ask about Zoox, from DEPLOY’s explainer library. Each is written in the language of the question and cross-checked against this registry.

• What is Zoox and how does it compare to other robotaxi operators?

  Zoox is an Amazon-owned autonomous-vehicle company headquartered in Foster City, California. Unlike Waymo (retrofit Jaguar I-PACE) or Tesla Robotaxi (retrofit Model Y), Zoox is the only major US robotaxi operator deploying a purpose-built bidirectional vehicle with no steering wheel or driver position. Zoox launched a free public demo robotaxi service on the Las Vegas Strip and in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood in 2025 and operates an employee shuttle program at its Foster City headquarters. Paid commercial service was planned for 2026 pending federal approval; current public rides remain free as of mid-2026.

• What is Aurora and how does its autonomous trucking work?

  Aurora Innovation is a US autonomous-vehicle company exclusively focused on commercial Class 8 trucking. Aurora launched commercial driverless trucking service between Dallas and Houston in April 2024 with freight customers including Werner Enterprises, Hirschbach Motor Lines, and Schneider. The company was founded by Chris Urmson (Google self-driving alumni) with Sterling Anderson and Drew Bagnell; it is a publicly-traded NASDAQ company following a 2021 SPAC merger.

• What are the main Chinese robotaxi companies (Baidu Apollo Go, Pony AI, WeRide) and how do they compare to US operators?

  Three Chinese autonomous-vehicle operators run commercial robotaxi services at substantially larger scale than US peers: Baidu Apollo Go (commercial robotaxi in Beijing, Wuhan, Chongqing, Shenzhen, and additional cities); Pony AI (commercial services in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shenzhen; NYSE-listed November 2024); and WeRide (commercial fleet in China plus international deployments in Abu Dhabi and Singapore). The Chinese commercial AV cluster operates at higher trip volumes, lower per-ride pricing, and broader city coverage than US peers including Waymo.

• Which is safer, Waymo or Tesla Robotaxi?

  Waymo has the substantively stronger verified safety record in 2026: multi-year operational data across roughly 11 US metropolitan markets, published annual safety reports with per-million-miles accident-rate metrics, third-party actuarial validation (Swiss Re), and accident rates substantively below human-driver baselines for comparable urban environments. Tesla Robotaxi has a much shorter operational history (pilot launched June 2025 across 4 markets: Austin lead, Dallas, Houston, SF Bay Area), thinner published safety analysis, and operates an unrelated safety-data context from Tesla Autopilot. The comparison is asymmetric because the operational scales are asymmetric, not because Tesla Robotaxi has demonstrated safety problems at pilot scale.

• Are robotaxis safe?

  Yes, on average, at the per-operator scales that have accumulated data. Waymo's published safety record shows a crash rate substantially below the human-driver baseline for comparable urban environments across tens of millions of autonomous miles. Tesla Robotaxi and Zoox operate at pilot scale with thinner public safety datasets but no fatal crashes verified. The fair conclusion per DEPLOY's framework: robotaxi safety is verifiable per-operator at the scales each has accumulated, with statistical confidence intervals tied to cumulative mileage.

• How safe is Tesla Robotaxi?

  Tesla Robotaxi's Austin pilot launched in June 2025 and has accumulated roughly 12 months of operational history as of mid-2026, with subsequent expansion to Dallas, Houston, and SF Bay Area for a 4-market pilot footprint. The published per-mile safety statistics are thinner than Waymo's multi-year operational baseline; no fatal Tesla Robotaxi crashes have been verified at the pilot scope. The honest framing is asymmetric data: Tesla Robotaxi's safety record is verifiable at the pilot scale that exists, but the depth is not yet at the level of Waymo's published annual safety reports with third-party actuarial validation. Pilot-stage data is not the same as commercial-scale data.

Current leadership (2)

• Aicha Evans CEOsecondary-verified
• Jesse Levinson Co-founder & CTOsecondary-verified

Founders (2)

• Jesse Levinsoncofounderfounded 2014-01-01
• Tim Kentley-Klaycofounderfounded 2014-01-01no longer at company

Former / Previously (2)

• Tim Kentley-Klay Co-founder & former CEOsecondary-verified
• Mark Schwager Operationssecondary-verified

Safety record

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Incidents affecting Zoox (14)

• Zoox robotaxi involved in minor crash on Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue, vehicle towed2026-06-15 · Collision
• NHTSA grants first Automated Vehicle Exemption to Zoox2026-06-03 · Regulatory action
• Zoox robotaxi stalled at Flamingo Road and Valley View intersection in Las Vegas2026-06-01 · Traffic disruption
• Four Zoox robotaxis stalled on Hacienda Avenue near the Las Vegas Strip, blocking traffic lanes2026-04-01 · Traffic disruption
• NHTSA seeks public comment on Zoox FMVSS exemption petition for autonomous robotaxi2026-02-15 · Regulatory action
• Zoox robotaxi struck an opening car door in San Francisco, injuring a street ambassador2026-01-17 · Injury
• Zoox recalls 332 self-driving vehicles due to software issue2026-01-15 · Recall
• Zoox recalled 332 robotaxis over unnecessary lane-crossings near intersections2025-12-23 · Recall
• Zoox recalls 270 ADS vehicles (NHTSA 25E-037) over moving near undetected pedestrians2025-05-22 · Recall
• ADS Software Error May Cause Crash2025-04-25 · Recall
• Zoox recalled ~270 robotaxis after a Las Vegas collision with a passenger car2025-04-08 · Recall
• Zoox recalls 258 ADS vehicles (NHTSA 25E-019) over unexpected braking near cyclists/motorcyclists2025-03-14 · Recall
• ADS Software May Cause Unexpected Hard Braking2025-03-14 · Recall
• Zoox robotaxi involved in vehicle collision during Las Vegas testing (Jun 2024)2024-06-01 · Collision

Includes incidents linked directly to this company, to its models, or to deployments of its models or under its operation. Retracted incidents are excluded from this view but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Operated deployments (3)

• Zoox RobotaxiLos Angeles
• Zoox RobotaxiSan Francisco
• Zoox RobotaxiLas Vegas

Operator customers (1)

• Zoox3 deployments

Brains developed (1)

• Zoox Driving Systemfoundation-model · pilot

Peer companies

• Tesla4 models
• Aurora Innovation3 models
• Nuro3 models
• Waymo3 models
• Avride2 models
• Baidu2 models

Supplied by (2)

Inbound supply edges feeding this company directly or via the models it owns. Same source bar as the outbound view (verified against at least two strong sources).

Financial state

Reporting basis

aggregator_estimate

Lifecycle stage

mature

Counterparty risk class

low

Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.

Partnerships (2)

• Uber x Zoox with Uberdeploymentannouncedreported, not operationally verified
• Zoox x Uber (Robotaxi Network) with Uberdeploymentannouncedreported, not operationally verified

Funding rounds (2)

• Acquisition (Amazon)2020-06-26

  $1.3B(reported)

  Investors: Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund (lead)

• Series A2018-07-16

  $500M(reported)

  Investors: Lux Capital (lead)

Regulatory filings (3)

• FMVSS self-certificationother · us_nhtsaactive
• 25E-090nhtsa recall · us_nhtsarecalled2025-12-22

  Linked models: Zoox Robotaxi

• 25E-029nhtsa recall · us_nhtsarecalled2025-05-01

  Linked models: Zoox Robotaxi

Acquisitions (1)

• acquired by Amazonfull acquisition2020-06-26

Sources (10)

1. Zoox: Amazon-owned, purpose-built robotaxi + Highlander test fleet, SF/Vegas/Austin/Miami/Seattle, recalls · https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/06/amazon-owned-zoox-issues-recall-following-robotaxi-crash/ ↗ · 2025-05-06
2. Zoox custom robotaxis to SF (SoMa) and Las Vegas (Strip); founded ~2014; Amazon 2020 · https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/30/zoox-custom-robotaxis-are-finally-coming-to-san-francisco-and-las-vegas ↗ · 2024-10-30
3. Zoox runs free public robotaxi rides in SF + Las Vegas; needs federal approval for paid; plans to charge 2026 · https://interestingengineering.com/transportation/amazon-robotaxis-software-recall ↗ · 2025-12-23
4. We're acquiring Zoox: Amazon announces agreement to acquire Zoox (no purchase price disclosed in the release) · https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/were-acquiring-zoox-to-help-bring-their-vision-of-autonomous-ride-hailing-to-reality ↗ · 2020-06-26
5. https://zoox.com/ ↗
6. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/10/amazons-zoox-jumps-into-us-robotaxi-race-with-las-vegas-launch-.html ↗
7. https://electrek.co/2026/03/24/zoox-expands-current-service-area-and-is-bringing-its-purpose-built-robotaxi-to-two-new-cities/ ↗
8. https://www.amazon.science/latest-news/how-the-zoox-robotaxi-predicts-everything-everywhere-all-at-once ↗
9. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-24/amazon-s-zoox-plans-to-expand-robotaxi-rides-to-austin-miami ↗
10. https://fortune.com/2025/12/08/amazon-robotaxi-service-zoox-plans-fees-vegas-san-francisco/ ↗

Common questions

What is Zoox?

Autonomous-vehicle company founded ~2014 by Jesse Levinson and Tim Kentley-Klay, acquired by Amazon in 2020 for over $1 billion. Zoox develops a purpose-built, bidirectional robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, plus a retrofitted Toyota Highlander test fleet. As of late 2025/early 2026, Zoox operates FREE public demonstration robotaxi rides (not yet paid commercial service) in parts of San Francisco (SoMa) and Las Vegas (the Strip), having opened to early riders/public after starting with employees and vetted guests in 2024. Zoox requires further federal approval before charging for rides and has stated it plans to begin paid commercial service in 2026. It also tests (with human safety operators) in Austin, Miami, Seattle, and Los Angeles using retrofitted Highlanders. Zoox has faced significant regulatory scrutiny: three software recalls in 2025 (258 vehicles in March for unexpected hard braking, ~270 in May after an April Las Vegas collision, and 332 in December for unnecessary lane-crossings near intersections), plus NHTSA probes. Amazon has positioned Zoox as its entry into autonomous ride-hailing, though it trails Waymo in commercial deployment.

What does Zoox make?

Zoox has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Zoox Robotaxi (Zoox builds both physical robots and the AI that runs them).

Is Zoox publicly traded?

Zoox is not independently listed on public markets; it is part of Amazon on the DEPLOY registry.

Who competes with Zoox?

On the DEPLOY registry, peer companies to Zoox building in the same form factors include Tesla, Aurora Innovation, Nuro, Waymo.

Where is Zoox headquartered?

Zoox is headquartered in Foster City, California, USA.