Zoox to Start Charging Passengers for Robotaxi Rides Next Week

Zoox has been allowed to do self-driving vehicle and robotaxi testing for a long time, but it hasn’t been allowed to charge passengers for them. Now, however, that has changed — Zoox got approval last week from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis in the next two years and to also charge passengers for the rides. The news now is that the company will start collecting fares from passengers in Las Vegas next week.

While it hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention as Waymo and Tesla, Zoox has driven more than 1 million passengers more than 3 million miles in robotaxis in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Austin, and Miami.

Zoox is also the company that has been growing its share of the US robotaxi market the most in recent months. As I wrote about a month ago, “Apparently, according to mobile app tracker Apptopia, Amazon-backed Zoox has grown its share of the market from 15% of active monthly users to 25% so far in 2026. That’s from January 2026 (15%) to June 2026 (25%).

“Waymo is still the market leader by far, but its share dropped from 79% to 69% in that timeframe. Its user base is still growing, but monthly active user (MAU) growth has dropped from 79% (ironically) to 15% year over year.”

How many more robotaxis will Zoox deploy now that it’s able to deploy thousands of them and charge passengers for rides? Could we see Zoox actually challenge Waymo’s dominance? We shall see.