Zoox, the self-driving car company owned by Amazon, launched its robotaxi service to the public in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, marking a major step forward for the autonomous vehicle company. The service, called the Zoox Explorers program, offers free rides to people who sign up through the Zoox app, allowing them to experience driverless rides in certain neighborhoods, including SoMa, the Mission, and the Design District.
The San Francisco launch comes only a few months after Zoox launched its first public ride-hailing service in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September 2025, showing how quickly the company is expanding. Zoox has been testing its self-driving technology in San Francisco since 2017, giving the company nearly eight years of local experience before opening to the public. The company currently runs a fleet of approximately 50 robotaxis between San Francisco and Las Vegas.
The robotaxis look completely different from regular cars. These Electric vehicles are designed from the ground up to be fully driverless, with no steering wheel or pedals and bench seats facing each other, creating a lounge-like environment for up to 4 passengers. The box-shaped vehicles can drive forward or backward at normal speeds without needing to turn around, and their lights automatically switch between headlights and brake lights depending on which direction they’re traveling. The vehicles are equipped with extensive sensor arrays, including laser lidars, radar units, multiple cameras, and thermal imaging cameras, to detect and navigate their surroundings.
People can download the Zoox app to join the waitlist and request rides, with the system delivering passengers as close to their destination as possible within the service zone. The service area currently covers the SoMa, Mission, and Design District neighborhoods, which is considerably smaller than competitor Waymo’s 260-square-mile service area in San Francisco. The San Francisco service operates on a point-to-point basis, giving riders more flexibility by allowing them to be picked up and dropped off at specific addresses or points of interest.
Zoox doesn’t charge for rides yet, unlike Waymo, which has been charging fares since debuting in Phoenix in 2018. Before Zoox can start charging money, California regulators need to approve the company’s application to charge for rides in San Francisco. Waymo received that same approval from California regulators in August 2023. Zoox also needs an exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to use its custom-built vehicles for commercial operations. The company already received NHTSA approval to demonstrate its vehicles on public roads and provide free rides, but needs additional clearance to charge passengers and release up to 2,500 vehicles per year.
The launch puts Zoox in direct competition with Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Waymo opened its robotaxi service to all San Francisco riders in June 2024 and has provided over 10 million paid rides since launching its service in Phoenix in 2020. Waymo’s robotaxis have become a familiar sight on San Francisco streets, and the company recently announced an expansion of its service to Peninsula freeways, establishing an important link to two of the Bay Area’s major airports. Waymo also operates in San Jose, California; Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and Austin, Texas, with plans to expand to other U.S. cities next year.
Zoox plans to gradually open up the service by adding more vehicles to its fleet and expanding the areas where it operates. The company aims to remove the waitlist entirely and open the service to the public by 2026. During this early phase, Zoox is collecting feedback from riders to refine the vehicle design and self-driving technology before pursuing larger-scale expansion. If necessary, Zoox workers can remotely control the vehicles, providing a safety backup for unusual situations.
Amazon acquired Zoox in 2020 for $1.3 billion, marking the e-commerce giant’s entry into the autonomous driving industry. To support manufacturing needs, Amazon converted a former bus factory in Hayward, California, into a state-of-the-art robotaxi production facility. The new 220,000-square-foot facility, located in the Bay Area near Amazon’s San Francisco operations, can produce approximately 10,000 robotaxis annually, underscoring Amazon’s scale of commitment to the autonomous vehicle sector.
Beyond San Francisco and Las Vegas, Zoox has deployed test fleets in several other major U.S. cities, including Seattle, Washington; Austin, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and Washington, D.C. The company plans to expand its autonomous vehicle service to Austin and Miami, Florida, following its San Francisco launch.