The Zoox robotaxi rolls into San Francisco

It’s been a busy year for Zoox as we’ve continued to make meaningful advancements toward launching our autonomous ride-hailing service. Now, we’re excited to share updates on the latest chapter of our journey. We have recently rolled out our robotaxi on the streets of San Francisco and expanded our Las Vegas geofence, significantly expanding operations in California and Nevada.

“This marks our entrance with the robotaxi into our second commercial market,” said Aicha Evans, CEO. “Since 2017, our test fleet has autonomously navigated San Francisco streets with a safety driver. Now that we’ve passed all critical safety measures, we are excited to begin testing our robotaxi in this wonderful city.”

San Francisco is our home

Remaining true to our phased approach for new deployments, initial testing for our robotaxi will occur in a focused area: the vibrant SoMa neighborhood in San Francisco. During this testing phase, rides will not be available to the public. Zoox employees can take rides, helping to refine the experience. As testing progresses, we will expand our geofence to include additional neighborhoods throughout the city.

“Zoox is the only company driving a purpose-built robotaxi on public roads without traditional manual controls,” said Jesse Levinson, Co-Founder and CTO. “This expansion marks our third city for our robotaxi operations, following Foster City and Las Vegas. We’ve rigorously tested and validated our AI stack in multiple cities over the last seven years in preparation for the deployment of our robotaxi fleet. From day one, our robotaxis will be leveraging a deep history and understanding of this area.”

While some residents of the city may already be familiar with our test fleet, the Zoox robotaxi is unlike any other vehicle on the road today. Over the last few months, we’ve been popping up at events across San Francisco and Las Vegas, and we encourage the public to visit and see a Zoox robotaxi in person. We want to get to know our neighbors and answer questions about Zoox to ensure the community feels informed.

Expanding our robotaxi operations in Las Vegas

We are making significant progress towards welcoming our first public riders in Las Vegas in 2025. We've recently deployed the robotaxi in a larger geofence in Las Vegas, including The Strip and surrounding areas. The Strip is one of the most highly trafficked areas in Las Vegas and is full of complex driving scenarios. These include areas of more than eight lanes of traffic with multiple turning lanes, high speeds, heavy pedestrian traffic, and large-scale intersections. Deploying our robotaxi in this dynamic area will provide invaluable learnings for our AI stack and service as we prepare Zoox for its first riders.

The first to ride

And speaking of first riders, as we prepare to welcome public riders in Las Vegas in the new year, we will do so through an early rider program. These select riders will have the opportunity to ride with Zoox for free, providing valuable feedback. 

If you are interested in being one of our early riders, please sign up for our newsletter and follow Zoox on social media to receive updates as available. We can’t wait to give you a ride! 

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