Amazon's Zoox Offers Free Driverless Robotaxi Rides in San Francisco

Zoox, Amazon's autonomous mobility company, is conducting driverless robotaxi trials in central San Francisco and offering free rides to the public. Its vehicles are capsule-shaped and purpose-built from the ground up for driverless mobility, with no steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedals. The interior has a face-to-face four-seat layout, and the vehicle can travel symmetrically in either direction without needing to turn around. Waymo, a company under Alphabet, uses conventional luxury SUVs such as the Jaguar I-Pace in San Francisco, adding sensor suites to production vehicles. It has run fully paid commercial operations for several years and has a relatively large fleet. Zoox previously tested in Las Vegas and later began operating in San Francisco.

On perception and decision-making architecture, both Zoox and Waymo use highly redundant multi-sensor fusion, combining lidar, millimeter-wave radar, and high-resolution cameras to build a 360-degree perception network. Tesla, by contrast, adheres to a pure vision approach. Zoox's dedicated vehicle assembly plant in Hayward, California, is planned for annual output of up to 10,000 units. About 100 fully driverless vehicles are currently operating on San Francisco streets.

Because a commercial paid-service permit is still in the final approval process with California regulators, Zoox is relying on a demonstration exemption granted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to offer free point-to-point rides to early public users who pass a waitlist review. Its service area is gradually expanding to cover areas including South of Market, the Mission District, and the Design District. Zoox is also working with local arts organizations, community events, and social media influencers for promotion. Zoox is Amazon's autonomous mobility company and receives financial backing from Amazon.