DEPLOYDatabase

Company

Zoox

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
Amazon subsidiary

The verified answer

As of Aug 2026, DEPLOY verifies Zoox: 1 model, 9 deployments across 8 regions, $1.2B raised, 91 active incidents. 20 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

$1.2B

Models

1

Deployments

9

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
9 deployments on file
Active incidents
91 incidents on file

Valuation of record

DEPLOY VERIFIED
$1.2B (reported, approximate)as of Jun 2020

AcquisitionAcquired by Amazon

See the full valuations ranking →

Data & sources

Press releases

1

News coverage

4

Patent documents

10

Web sources

5

20 sources backing this record.View all →

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”

    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.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 →

Current leadership (2)

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

24 recalls and 67 incidents on record (3 serious, 21 moderate, 56 minor). Most recent: Jul 2026.

serious
3
moderate
21
minor
56
Severity not classified
11
collision
55
recall
24
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 (91)

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

TechCrunch Mobility: The shifting flight path of electric air taxis

Aug 16, 2026

Here's How Zoox's Robotaxi Safety Testing Will Work

Aug 16, 2026

Zoox has shown its safety workings, three weeks after recalling every robotaxi it owns

Aug 14, 2026

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