Amazon subsidiary Zoox has begun deploying fully autonomous vehicles on the streets of San Francisco and started charging for rides in Las Vegas on August 10, escalating its direct competition with Waymo in two of the most closely watched autonomous-driving markets in the United States5,1,8.
Zoox's vehicles are purpose-built robotaxis with no steering wheel, no pedals, and a bi-directional design that seats four passengers facing each other3. The company had been operating for free in Las Vegas for several months before it began collecting payment. Zoox gained a government exemption to operate vehicles commercially without conventional driver controls.
The company has logged over 3 million autonomous miles and carried close to 1 million passengers, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by TradingView. Amazon acquired Zoox in 2020 for roughly $1.2 billion. Zoox has approximately 100 to 110 vehicles in its fleet, compared with Waymo's roughly 3,500 to 4,000 vehicles across 11 cities, according to Axios transportation correspondent Joann Muller.
San Francisco represents a direct challenge to Waymo, which already has a large presence in the city. Waymo fully launched its robotaxi service in Houston on August 20, opening rides to all users[3]. Zoox has also targeted Austin and Miami as its next markets, according to Muller.
The expansion puts pressure on Tesla, which missed its California robotaxi deadline and was only beginning to remove safety monitors as of January 2026. Last November, prediction markets assigned as high as 57% odds that Tesla would launch robotaxis in California by June 30 — that deadline passed without a launch. Tesla's Las Vegas expansion is part of its planned H1 2026 robotaxi rollout.
Tesla shares traded around $340.62 on Monday, August 17, down 22.25% year-to-date. Only 44% of analysts are bullish on Tesla, with 17 Hold ratings and eight Sell or Strong Sell ratings. A 24/7 Wall St. analysis examines a scenario where Tesla's stock could fall 70% if its autonomous vehicle lead erodes faster than the market expects.
Amazon, by contrast, carries 63 Buy ratings against just four Hold ratings, with a consensus analyst target of $280.47; shares traded around $261.68.
On the regulatory front, Muller noted that there are no federal regulations for autonomous vehicles, though the Department of Transportation and NHTSA are beginning to work on performance standards. Zoox released its Safety Case framework, joining Waymo and Aurora, which have also published such frameworks.
ANALYSIS Zoox's fleet of roughly 100 vehicles is a fraction of Waymo's scale, but the San Francisco deployment forces a head-to-head comparison on Waymo's home turf — one that will test whether a purpose-built, steering-wheel-free vehicle design can compete against Waymo's adapted Jaguar platform. The simultaneous move to charge fares in Las Vegas while expanding testing in San Francisco marks a transition from R&D project to commercial operation, backed by Amazon's capital.