Zoox robotaxi collides with passenger car in Las Vegas

What happened

On April 8, 2025, a Zoox robotaxi with no one on board was driving autonomously in Las Vegas when a passenger car approached its lane from a commercial driveway. According to Zoox’s account reported by TechCrunch, the robotaxi predicted the car would keep moving into the road, so it slowed and steered to the right. The car instead stopped and yielded, remaining in the shoulder lane.

Zoox said the robotaxi braked hard but that contact could not be avoided. No injuries were reported, and TechCrunch reported minor damage to both vehicles.

The system involved

Zoox, an Amazon subsidiary, tests purpose-built robotaxis without steering wheels or pedals in Las Vegas and San Francisco, along with retrofitted test vehicles carrying safety operators. In its recall report, Zoox said that at speeds above 40 mph, when another vehicle edged out from a perpendicular driveway toward the Zoox vehicle’s lane and then halted, the software could make an inaccurately confident prediction that the vehicle would proceed, and plan a path that left it unable to respond in time.

Investigation and response

Zoox paused all driverless operations on April 8, 2025, for an internal review. On April 10 it resumed driverless operations in areas with maximum speeds below 40 mph, excluding higher-speed Las Vegas routes. It confirmed the root cause on April 11, reported the crash to NHTSA under the Standing General Order on April 13, and released updated software to its vehicles on April 16 and 17, after which operations resumed everywhere.

On May 1, 2025, Zoox filed Part 573 recall report 25E-029 covering software on 270 vehicles. TechCrunch noted that Zoox had recalled 258 vehicles in March 2025 over unexpected hard braking.

A second incident followed on May 8, 2025, in San Francisco: an e-scooter rider struck a stopped, unoccupied Zoox robotaxi and fell beside it, and the robotaxi then began to move without touching the rider, according to Zoox’s recall report 25E037. Zoox again paused driverless operations and deployed updated software on May 21, 2025.

What is not established

The description of how the two vehicles moved before the collision comes from Zoox; no independent finding on fault was found in the sources opened for this entry.