Amazon’s (AMZN) Zoox launched its robotaxi service in Las Vegas on Wednesday, upping the ante in the self-driving taxi race and taking on the likes of Tesla (TSLA), Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Waymo, and Uber (UBER) and Lucid (LCID).
According to Zoox, the service will be free at first and take riders to and from locations including Resorts World Las Vegas, Area15, Topgolf and other resorts and entertainment spots, before expanding to additional destinations in the coming months.
“The autonomous vehicle industry has made remarkable strides this year, bringing us closer to a future of safer, more accessible mobility,” Zoox CEO Aicha Evans said in a statement.
“With the launch of our fully driverless ride-hailing service using a purposefully designed robotaxi, we’re thrilled to be part of this groundbreaking journey,” she added.
I rode in a Zoox vehicle during CES 2025 in January, riding along a portion of the Las Vegas strip as the car navigated around cones and traffic from the nearby Las Vegas Raiders game. There’s always something odd about sitting in a self-driving car, but it’s especially interesting in a Zoox because of its unique design and styling.
Unlike Tesla’s Robotaxi, Google’s Waymo, or Uber’s Lucid vehicles, Zoox’s vehicles aren’t repurposed versions of existing manually driven cars. Instead, Zoox built its self-driving cars to serve as robotaxis from the ground up.
There’s no steering wheel inside. It features bench-style seats that face each other, rather than all seats facing forward. Part of that is because there’s no real front or back to Zoox’s cars. The cars can change between moving forward and backwards on the fly, switching their indicator lights to headlights or brake lights when necessary.
Zoox says riders will be able to download the Zoox app from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. When you call a car, you’ll see its license plate, estimated pickup times and arrival updates. You can also ask for assistance via the app or press the Help button in the car.
In addition to Las Vegas, Zoox says it’s working to bring its service to other cities including San Francisco, Austin, and Miami.
In July, Uber announced that it is partnering with electric automaker Lucid and autonomous tech firm Nuro to develop a self-driving vehicle program.
The new robotaxi move will see Lucid’s Gravity SUVs outfitted with Nuro Driver Level 4 autonomous software deployed on Uber’s platform and fleet management systems. Uber said the goal is to deploy 20,000 or more Lucid EVs equipped with Nuro Driver over the next six years.
