Zoox Autonomous Vehicles Hit San Francisco Streets, Challenging Waymo

Amazon's Zoox subsidiary has taken its fully autonomous vehicles onto San Francisco streets, marking a significant step into the robotaxi market and a direct confrontation with Alphabet's Waymo.

The vehicles, which have no steering wheel or pedals, are designed for four passengers who face each other in a bi-directional configuration. This expansion comes after Zoox clocked over 3 million autonomous miles and carried nearly 1 million passengers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

San Francisco is considered a key testing ground due to Waymo's established presence there. Amazon acquired Zoox for approximately $1.2 billion in 2020, and the subsidiary has been working on its robotaxi strategy.