Zoox (Amazon) · USA
Zoox robotaxi
Amazon-owned Zoox's carriage-style robotaxi: four seats facing each other, no front or back, and no steering wheel, built from scratch to never be driven by a person.
Paid rides in Las Vegas since August 2026, free rides for waitlist members in San Francisco. Zoox received a US exemption in July 2026 to build up to 2,500 a year.
How it works
5 ideas that make Zoox robotaxi different
No front, no back
It drives equally well in either direction and steers all four wheels, so it never needs to turn around or reverse out of a tight street.
Sensors on every corner
Sensor pods on all four top corners combine cameras, lidar, radar and thermal cameras, each giving a wide view, so together they see all the way round the vehicle with overlap.
Heat vision
Thermal cameras see the warmth of people and animals, picking out a pedestrian in darkness or glare that might fool an ordinary camera.
Built around riders
Four seats face each other like a carriage, with no driver controls taking up space. Its interior was refined using feedback from over 500,000 riders.
Needs special permission
Because it has no steering wheel or pedals, it doesn't meet standard US car safety rules written for human drivers, so Zoox needed a federal exemption to put it into service.
Watch it drive
Seeing the world differently: Inside the Zoox robotaxi's 360° vision — Zoox (official). Zoox explains how its robotaxi sees all the way around.
Full specifications
Compare with other RobotaxisFigures are the maker's own unless marked as a third-party figure. Nothing below has been independently verified.
Identity
Service
What this means
Miles driven with no human ready to take over, across the company's whole fleet. Most were driven by older vehicles, so this measures each company's experience rather than the car shown. Companies count differently, so check the note under each figure.
Cabin
What this means
A car built without a steering wheel or pedals can never be driven by a person, so it has to be fully self-driving everywhere it goes. Removing them frees up space, but in most countries it also needs special approval from regulators.
Sensing
What this means
Cameras see colour, text and signals, like traffic lights and road markings, and are cheap. On their own they have to estimate distance from the image, and they struggle in glare and darkness.
What this means
Lidar fires laser pulses and times their return, measuring the exact distance to everything around the car in 3D, day or night. It adds cost, which is why Tesla leaves it out and relies on cameras alone.
What this means
Radar uses radio waves to measure distance and speed. It sees through rain, fog and spray where cameras and lidar struggle, but in less detail.
Power and performance
Safety
Sources
Last checked 2026-10-23.