'Toaster on wheels': Amazon has begun competing with Alphabet and Tesla in the robot cab market

Amazon, the owner of the largest online retailer in the US and the AWS cloud platform, has launched a test of its Zoox robotaxi on the streets of Las Vegas. Bought by the giant five years ago, the startup is starting to compete with Alphabet's Tesla Robotaxi and Waymo.

Presentation rides of the Zoox robotic cab launched on September 10 from several locations in Las Vegas, and the startup plans to expand its coverage in the coming months, CNBC reports. The ride will eventually become toll-free, but Zoox notes that it has yet to receive regulatory approval for commercial operation.

After the Las Vegas launch, Zoox plans to launch an early access program in San Francisco by the end of the year, where it is already testing a fleet of 50 cars, just like in Las Vegas. The next cities will be Austin and Miami. In addition, the company's converted test cars are already driving around Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Seattle.

Zoox already has a 1.8-hectare depot in Las Vegas - that's about three soccer fields. Dozens of cars are already ready for rides. It will be possible to order a ride via smartphone from several locations in the city.

Zoox has been testing its technology in Las Vegas since 2019. Test rides with passengers started in 2023, and in July 2025, the company began conducting demo rides at Resorts World for everyone.

Zoox, bought by Amazon for $1.3 billion five years ago, is officially entering the robotaxi race in the US. The startup's main competitors in the US market will be Alphabet's Waymo and Tesla.

Waymo is already way ahead of the curve: it launched commercial drone rides back in 2020. Since the beginning of the year, Waymo has passed the 10 million paid rides mark and now operates in five cities. Next year, the service will also launch in Dallas, Denver, Miami, Seattle and Washington, DC.

Tesla in June began testing a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, but with the presence of a human observer in the cabin.

"We believe this is still early days, and the future of this industry is still uncertain," said Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson during a demo tour with CNBC reporters.

Given the enormous cost of building and launching a full robotaxi service, Zoox's profits shouldn't be expected before 2030 - if at all, according to Sam Abuelsamida, vice president of research firm Telemetry.

Nevertheless, Amazon is being patient. Since the deal in 2020, the company has invested billions of dollars in Zoox and now it can finally show the world what has worked, CNBC writes.

Zoox was founded in 2014, five years after Google launched the project that later became Waymo. While competitors were adapting existing car models by adding sensors and software, Zoox was printing new parts on 3D printers, sources familiar with the process of creating the electric car told the TV station. Earlier this year, Zoox opened a new manufacturing facility in Hayward, across the bay from its headquarters in California. Right now, the plant produces one car a day, but when it reaches full capacity, the company promises, it will produce up to three robotaxis per hour - that's about 10,000 units a year. By comparison, Waymo has more than 2,000 cars in its commercial fleet.

Zoox robotaxis do not look like a familiar car. These cars have no steering wheel and pedals, and for their rectangular shape they have already been dubbed in the industry "a toaster on wheels," the channel writes. "You could, of course, build an autonomous driving system into a regular car, but that would be a compromise," Levinson told CNBC in Las Vegas. - "We went the other way - we invested in development from the ground up to create a product that is much better than a regular car.

Inside the robotaxi, there are two rows of seats opposite each other. The front and back are symmetrical: the car can move in any direction without turning around. The Zoox has a 16-hour battery life.

"This is not a converted vehicle," Zoox CEO Aisha Evans emphasized in an interview with CNBC. - We designed the vehicle from the ground up - around the passenger."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor