Amazon’s Zoox won federal clearance to charge for rides in robotaxis built without steering wheels or other human controls, the first US approval of its kind, according to Reuters. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration exempted the vehicles from rules written for conventional cars and cleared Zoox to deploy up to 2,500 a year for two years, though none can be sold to the public. Zoox already carries test passengers in Las Vegas and San Francisco, and will charge in Las Vegas first, adding markets as state and local approvals land. NHTSA attached conditions covering crash reporting, improper stops on roads, US-based remote operators, and published maps of where the fleet runs. Tesla is also building a Cybercab with no human controls but hasn’t laid out its regulatory path.
