{"id":204336,"date":"2026-03-24T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204336\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T19:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T19:32:08","slug":"zoox-to-begin-testing-robotaxi-service-in-miami-and-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204336\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoox to begin testing robotaxi service in Miami and Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apparently, robotaxis are flocking to Miami, too.<\/p>\n

Zoox<\/a> announced its plans today to begin testing its purpose-built robotaxis with riders in Miami and Austin, as well as expanding service in San Francisco and Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis expansion marks a significant step forward for Zoox and is driven by the insights from our early deployments,\u201d said Zoox CEO Aicha Evans, in a statement. \u201cThis is our year of growth. We are actively implementing learnings to confidently and safely scale our robotaxi service across the country and bring our differentiated experience to even more riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zoox, founded in San Francisco and owned by Amazon, reports that in less than a year, the company\u2019s robotaxis have driven nearly 2 million miles and carried over 350,000 riders.<\/p>\n

You may have seen their robotaxi testing vehicles in Miami\u2019s streets, as they have been mapping the neighborhoods and testing them here on and off since mid-2024 \u2013 no doubt learning a thing of two about thunderstorms coming out of nowhere and Miami\u2019s notorious drivers.<\/p>\n

Zoox says the initial rollout with riders and its purpose-built bi-directional robotaxis [pictured above] \u2013 carriages with subway-style sliding doors and four inward-facing seats \u2013 will be in a a \u201chigh-demand ride-hailing area near the water\u201d and testing of the service will start in the spring. Rides will first be available to Zoox employees and their families and friends before opening it up to its wait list. The operating areas will expand as testing progresses.<\/p>\n

Zoox is also introducing new features like pre-booking estimates that give riders a clearer picture of their journey before they commit, as well as capabilities to help reduce wait times such as find the robotaxi in crowded areas, more accurate ETAs, and smoother driving.<\/p>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n

In other robotaxi news, as we reported last week, Uber announced<\/a> it is partnering with electric car maker Rivian Automotive to deploy robotaxis in Miami and San Francisco in 2028. Uber will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031 to build a fully autonomous fleet of Rivian R2 robotaxis. After Miami and Sa Francisco, Uber plans to \u00a0expand to 25 more cities in the US, Canada and Europe by 2031.<\/p>\n

And in January,\u00a0Waymo launched<\/a>\u00a0its fully driverless electric robotaxi service in the area, its sixth major U.S. market. The Alphabet-owned company operates across downtown Miami and Miami Beach, and has plans to launch commercial services in 20 new cities globally this year.\u00a0Last November, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said to expect\u00a0Tesla robotaxis<\/a>\u00a0to arrive first in five cities, including Miami, without revealing a timeline.<\/p>\n

In addition to robotaxis, all-electric air taxis<\/a> are eyeing the Miami market too, with companies including Archer Aviation, Wisk Aero and Joby Aviation hoping to launch eVTOL aircraft service in the next few years. \u00a0In South Florida, all-electric seaplane service is also in the mix of potential offerings.<\/p>\n

READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:<\/p>\n

\"Nancy<\/a> I am a writer and editor with extensive media experience and a passion for journalism and serving the community. Most of my career has been spent with the Miami Herald in business news, and my expertise is writing about tech and entrepreneurs. I love hosting this blog for Refresh Miami and we aim to be the go-to site for South Florida startup and tech news, features and views. Have news? Contact me at [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>. Thanks for reading! \"Nancy<\/a>Latest posts by Nancy Dahlberg (see all<\/a>) \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apparently, robotaxis are flocking to Miami, too. Zoox announced its plans today to begin testing its purpose-built robotaxis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-204336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}