Amazon's Zoox to enter Houston and San Diego, taking its robotaxi presence to 12 markets

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is expanding the reach of its self-driving unit Zoox, which announced on September 1, 2026 that it is adding Houston and San Diego to its operations. With the two new locations, Zoox will have a presence in 12 US markets.

The move puts the Amazon-owned company in direct competition with Alphabet's Waymo, which unveiled its own expansion on the same day. Waymo said it had launched paid, driverless rides in Denver, San Diego and Tampa, taking its service to 14 US cities in total.

San Diego becomes a notable point of overlap, with Zoox's test fleet arriving in the city just as Waymo begins offering rides to the public there. Zoox has not yet announced a date for when it will begin paid passenger service in either San Diego or Houston, where it is currently focused on testing.

For context on the scale of the rival, Waymo now operates a fleet of about 4,000 vehicles nationwide and reported around 500,000 robotaxi rides per week, with a stated target of reaching 1 million rides per week by year-end. Its three-city expansion added roughly 150 square miles of service territory, including an initial 50-square-mile area in San Diego.

No fare pricing, revenue or other financial figures for Zoox's new city launches were disclosed. The announcements underscore the intensifying pace of the US robotaxi race, in which Amazon's Zoox and Alphabet's Waymo are among the leading players.