SAN FRANCISCO, March 9, 2026, 10:56 PDT
Zoox, the self-driving taxi firm owned by Amazon.com, announced Monday it’s headed into Dallas and Phoenix for expanded robotaxi tests, with a new command hub planned for Scottsdale, Arizona. That puts Zoox’s U.S. test operations in 10 cities now, as the race in autonomous cabs heats up. Reuters
This expansion lands just ahead of a national forum in Washington, where U.S. auto safety regulators are bringing in the CEOs from Zoox, Waymo, and Aurora. Lawmakers are eager to accelerate deployment but insist on keeping a sharp eye on safety. Amazon, for its part, is pushing further into a space where Alphabet’s Waymo already dominates commercial launches, and Tesla has begun offering rides in Austin. Reuters
Zoox plans to kick off in Dallas and Phoenix, rolling out a limited fleet of retrofitted SUVs. The first step: crews will map city streets manually, then shift to autonomous driving trials with a safety driver sitting in. According to the company, both cities—sprawling, dry, dusty—present the kind of tough conditions that push its sensors, batteries, and AI tech to the limit. Reuters
Zoox is adding depots in Dallas and Phoenix, with its new Scottsdale Fusion Center set to manage fleet ops, rider help, and remote guidance. The move should mean hundreds of new jobs. Reuters
Waymo still sets the standard. According to NHTSA, the company has racked up 200 million miles in fully driverless mode on public streets, with around 400,000 weekly rides in cities like Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Atlanta, and Miami. Tesla started its own robotaxi service in Austin back in January, running vehicles without safety monitors. Reuters
NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison described the agency’s stance as a “measured approach,” focused on clearing out “unnecessary, unintended barriers” but still maintaining “strict safety oversight.” Yet Morrison underscored that “the technology is not perfect,” signaling that even as Washington pushes for speed, regulators remain vigilant on safety. Reuters
Zoox remains tangled in a lengthy regulatory process. Last August, Reuters reported that NHTSA certified Zoox’s custom-built vehicles for demo runs, granting an exemption for models lacking standard controls like steering wheels or pedals. But according to TechCrunch on Monday, the company is still stuck waiting for more approvals before it can launch commercial service at scale. On top of that, Zoox had to recall some vehicles last year due to problems with braking and crash prediction. Reuters
Zoox has surpassed 1 million miles driven autonomously and given rides to over 300,000 passengers so far. It’s operating on a limited scale in Las Vegas and running a pilot rider program in San Francisco—small numbers for Amazon, but enough to anchor its expansion into two additional cities. Reuters
