Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox has started allowing a limited number of passengers to hail rides in its fully autonomous, four-passenger vehicles across parts of San Francisco. The company confirmed to The Standard that these initial riders—friends and family of Zoox employees—are being invited off a waitlist to experience the service and provide feedback.
The operating zone for these test rides includes portions of SoMa, the Mission, and the Design District, areas where Zoox has been testing its steering-wheel-free and driverless vehicles since November. The rides are currently free of charge as the company continues to collect data and improve user experience.
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Zoox recently launched public operations in Las Vegas, where passengers can hail free rides to a limited set of destinations. “We look forward to scaling this safer, more enjoyable, and truly personal way to travel within Las Vegas and across more U.S. markets in the coming months and years,” said Zoox co-founder and chief technology officer Jesse Levinson.
The company has not yet shared a timeline for when its San Francisco service will be open to the general public, though a wider launch is expected sometime next year. Once operational, Zoox will join a competitive autonomous ride-hailing market alongside companies like Waymo and Tesla’s Robotaxi, which is currently running with safety drivers from Marin to San Jose.
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Beyond California and Nevada, Amazon-owned Zoox said it will begin mapping the streets of Washington, D.C. as it prepares to test its self-driving vehicles in the U.S. capital later this year. The company said it would initially deploy manually driven Toyota Highlanders fitted with its sensors and autonomous software to create detailed city maps, with autonomous testing—featuring onboard safety operators—expected to follow.
In addition, Zoox has filed for a federal exemption to commercially launch its custom-built robotaxi, which lacks traditional driving controls such as a steering wheel or pedals. The company submitted a petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) seeking a temporary waiver from eight Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards applicable to passenger cars equipped with automated driving systems, according to a Bloomberg report published in September.
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