DEPLOYDatabase

Company

Zoox

avzoox.com

Autonomous-vehicle company founded ~2014 by Jesse Levinson and Tim Kentley-Klay, acquired by Amazon in 2020 for over $1 billion.

Track Zoox
Founded
2014
HQ
Foster City, California, USA
Status
Subsidiary

The verified answer

As of Oct 2026, DEPLOY verifies Zoox: 1 model, 30 deployments across 8 regions, $1.8B raised, 104 active incidents. 25 sources back the record.

Regulatory status2 Regulatory filing1 FAA action3 NHTSA recalls

Zoox holds 2 Regulatory filing, has 1 FAA action pending, and has 3 NHTSA recalls on record, per the DEPLOY registry.

See all 6 filings

CategoryRobotaxis

Funding

$1.8B

Models

1

Deployments

30

Employees

2.2k

Patents

10

Overview

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. On August 10, 2026, Zoox launched its first-ever paid commercial ride-hailing service in Las Vegas, following NHTSA's July 30 temporary exemption allowing up to 2,500 vehicles annually for two years.

Free demonstration rides continue in San Francisco (SoMa). Zoox also tests with human safety operators in Austin, Miami, Seattle, and Los Angeles using retrofitted Highlanders. The company has faced significant regulatory scrutiny including three NHTSA software recalls in 2025 and ongoing probes. Amazon has positioned Zoox as its entry into autonomous ride-hailing, though it trails Waymo in commercial deployment scale.

Verified record

Verified deployments
30 deployments on file
Active incidents
104 incidents on file

Valuation of record

DEPLOY VERIFIED
$6.5B (reported, approximate)as of Jun 2020

Priced roundAcquisition (Amazon) post-money

See the full valuations ranking →

Key facts

Robotaxi (company-stated)

In 2020 Zoox unveiled its purpose-built robotaxi with no steering wheel or driver's seat, the year it joined Amazon.

Nevada permit (reported, Sep 2026)

Its Nevada permit with a 100-vehicle cap was set to expire Sep 25 2026, per TechCrunch.

Paid rides (reported, Sep 2026)

Las Vegas is the only city where Zoox charges for rides; California charging awaits another permit.

California SB 1246 (state, Sep 2026)

Signed Sep 30 2026; by July 2028 remote AV drivers must be US-based and licensed, and operators must alert local agencies during system failures.

SB 1246 first-responder rules

Requires on-site incident technicians and local penalties when an AV blocks responders for over 30 minutes. DMV rules pending.

Data & sources

Press releases

1

News coverage

6

Patent documents

10

Web sources

8

25 sources backing this record.View all →

Partnerships

Every company Zoox has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.

3 total3 just announced

Most-frequent partners

  1. 1Uber3× joint35 total

Most recent

  1. Uber x Zoox (Autonomous Rides)2026-07-01
    with Uberjust announced
  2. Uber x Zoox2026-06-10
    with Uberjust announced
  3. Zoox x Uber (Robotaxi Network)2026-03-11
    with Uberjust announced

Zoox on the deployment map

View the global map

30 verified deployments across 8 regions, newest verified Aug 2026. Explore where Zoox's robots are operating, by place and type.

Free to use on your site, with a link back to DEPLOY.

View the full Zoox deployment record →

Free to use on your site, with a link back to DEPLOY.

Relationships

UUberDeployerAAmazon Industrial Innovation FundInvestorLLux CapitalInvestorZZooxCustomer

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.

Claim Integrity: 0% (0 of 3 resolved claims verified; 4 tracked)
  • Partly trueTimeline · claimed 2026-04-01
    “NHTSA seeks public comment on Zoox FMVSS exemption petition for autonomous vehicles”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    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”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    claim sourcestatus evidencecite this claim
  • Partly trueCapacity · claimed 2026-01-01
    “The fleet handles ~250,000 paid rides weekly”

    Correction: this verdict was recorded with the claim date as its effective date. DEPLOY recorded it on 2026-07-09, which is its effective date.

    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.Read the full explainer →
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.Read the full explainer →
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.Read the full explainer →
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.Read the full explainer →
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.Read the full explainer →
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.Read the full explainer →
Show 3 more explainers
Which robotaxi is most deployed?
Waymo. About 4,000 vehicles across ~15 US metros doing ~500,000 paid fully driverless rides per week as of mid-2026. Baidu Apollo Go is the closest challenger at ~300,000 weekly rides and 20+ cities.Read the full explainer →
Which is the fastest robotaxi?
Waymo's Jaguar I-PACE fleet, at posted freeway limits up to 65 mph on I-10, I-110, I-405, and Route 90, opened to paying riders November 12, 2025. Every faster claim is a spec sheet, a Level 2 driver-assist, or a geofence away from the interstate.Read the full explainer →
Which robotaxi is safest?
Waymo, by a wide margin: it is the only fully driverless robotaxi with tens of millions of paid rider-only miles and peer-reviewed crash-rate data showing large reductions in injury crashes vs a human-driver benchmark on the same streets.Read the full explainer →

Current leadership (2)

ArrivalsMark Schwager from Tesla

DeparturesMark Schwager to Tesla

Founders (2)

See all founders across the registry →

Former / Previously (2)

Media (1)

Company-anchored media. Official assets the company has published at the company level, distinct from model-anchored media that lives on individual product pages.

Safety record

26 recalls and 78 incidents on record (7 serious, 30 moderate, 66 minor). Most recent: Jul 2026.

serious
7
moderate
30
minor
66
Severity not classified
1
collision
66
recall
26
regulatory action
9
traffic disruption
2
injury
1

Most recent: Jul 2026

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

Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →

Incidents affecting Zoox (104)

Showing the first 100 of 104. View all 104 incidents →

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.

Operator customers (1)

Brains developed (1)

Recent coverage

Zoox in third-party press

Your Driverless Cab Is Spying on You

Oct 2, 2026

Zoox grounds Atlanta test fleet after workers report toxic gas exposure symptoms

Sep 23, 2026

Amazon-owned Zoox’s 100-robotaxi limit in Nevada is about to disappear

Sep 17, 2026

Peers

91 peers across 2 segments. Every Zoox competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.

av(88)

57 companies in this segment · highly_concentrated (HHI 4969.122215850638) · leader Waymo at 6990%

autonomous vehicle(3)

  • Waymodirect competitor(reported)
    strong
  • Cruisedirect competitor(reported)
    moderate
  • Motionaldirect competitor(reported)
    moderate

Mentioned on (56+)

Registry pages whose text names Zoox.

Robots and products (3)

XPENG Robotaxi, Amazon Astro, Zoox Robotaxi

Deployments (29)

Zoox Robotaxi at San Francisco, Zoox Robotaxi at Los Angeles, Zoox Robotaxi at Austin, Texas, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Miami, Zoox Robotaxi at Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Austin, Texas, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Las Vegas, Zoox Robotaxi at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Miami, Florida, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Austin, Texas, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Seattle, Washington, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Atlanta, Georgia, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at San Francisco, California, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Phoenix, Zoox Robotaxi at Washington, D.C., USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Dallas, Zoox Robotaxi at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at San Francisco, California, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at United States, Zoox Robotaxi at Miami, Florida, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at Austin, Texas, USA, Zoox Robotaxi at San Francisco, California, USA, and 5 more

Incidents (13)

NHTSA opens investigation into Tesla Cybercab deployment hours after steering-wheel-free robotaxi launches in Austin, ADS crash report in Miami, FL involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-13377), ADS crash report in San Francisco, CA involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-14090), ADS crash report in San Francisco, CA involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-14152), ADS crash report in Santa Monica, CA involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-14167), ADS crash report in Austin, TX involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-14264), ADS crash report in Miami, FL involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-14554), ADS crash report in San Francisco, CA involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-14663), ADS crash report in San Francisco, CA involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-14665), ADS crash report in San Francisco, CA involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-15063), ADS crash report in Austin, TX involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-15465), ADS crash report in Miami, FL involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-15480), ADS crash report in San Francisco, CA involving a TOYOTA Highlander (NHTSA SGO 30610-15481)

About 65 more pages name Zoox and were not checked here.

Appears in DEPLOY reports