Driverless robotaxis to expand into more US cities

Two major robotaxi operators are expanding their driverless ride-hailing operations into additional cities, giving riders more transportation options as the race to scale autonomous taxis accelerates across the U.S.

What we know:

Amazon’s Zoox, which launched its paid service just weeks ago, is expanding to Houston and San Diego, bringing its presence to 12 U.S. locations. Last month, Zoox began offering paid rides in Las Vegas after previously launching free passenger services in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Austin and Miami.

In their two newest cities, Zoox will be using retrofitted test vehicles for manual mapping and testing before bringing in their driverless robotaxis. 

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What we know:

Alphabet’s Waymo commercial robotaxis have been operating in multiple U.S. cities since 2018. They plan to expand their services to Denver, San Diego and Tampa, bringing their total number of cities to 14. 

Robotaxis recalled over glitches

The backstory:

Several thousand autonomous vehicles have been recalled in recent months over glitches with driving systems. In June, 4,000 Waymo robotaxis were recalled over a risk of them driving in construction zones. A month prior, another 3,800 were recalled over software issues that could lead them to stalling in standing water. 

Waymo vehicles have had additional issues over the past couple of years, including possibly erroneously predicting the movement of a towed vehicle and the vehicle’s awareness response to pole or pole-type objects.

Last March, the National Transportation Safety Board stated it was probing an incident that occurred in January involving Waymo self-driving cars unlawfully ⁠driving past a ​stopped school bus with its lights activated. This incident led to Waymo issuing a recall of the vehicles in December 2025.  

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration is also investigating Waymo following ​an incident in January, where one of the company’s self-driving cars hit a child near an ​elementary school ⁠in Santa Monica, California, resulting in minor injuries.

 

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