Zoox will start charging Las Vegas robotaxi passengers next week

Zoox will start charging Las Vegas robotaxi passengers next week

2 min de citit•7 aug. 2026•
Anna Kowalski
Anna Kowalski

Zoox will start collecting fares from robotaxi passengers in Las Vegas next week, first reported by Cleantechnica. The move follows last week's approval to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis over the next two years and charge for rides, while Waymo remains the market leader by far in the US robotaxi market.

Before last week's approval, Zoox could conduct self-driving vehicle and robotaxi testing but could not charge passengers. NHTSA's authorization covers both paid rides and deployment of up to 5,000 robotaxis over the next two years.

Zoox has carried more than 1 million passengers for more than 3 million miles in robotaxis across Las Vegas, San Francisco, Austin and Miami. The fare launch adds paid service to an operation that has already carried passengers in four cities.

Zoox gains share as Waymo still leads

Mobile app tracker Apptopia apparently put Zoox's share of the robotaxi market at 25% of active monthly users in June 2026, up from 15% in January. Waymo's share fell from 79% to 69% over that period, although its user base continued growing.

Waymo's monthly active-user growth also fell from 79% year over year to 15%. Zoox is entering paid service as its share rises, but Waymo still holds the larger position by far.

The next question is how many more robotaxis Zoox will deploy now that it can deploy thousands and charge for rides.

Google’s Pixel 11 Pro teaser shows a notification light

Google’s Pixel 11 Pro teaser shows a notification light as the company turns its phone launch toward celebrities and broader audiences.

Google’s Pixel 11 Pro teaser shows a notification light, first reported by The Verge. The feature gives longtime Pixel fans a hardware detail to scrutinize even as Google’s celebrity-led event begins at 6PM ET, eight hours after its preorder countdown is scheduled to end, presumably after the phones have been revealed in full.

Google is widening the launch spectacle even as the hardware teaser speaks to longtime Pixel users. Last year’s Made by Google event for Pixel 10 aired an hour after the phones were revealed and featured Jimmy Fallon; the stream drew 8.4 million YouTube viewers, compared with 1.4 million for the launch the year before.

This year’s livestream replaces Fallon with Trevor Noah and adds Stephen Curry, Alex Cooper and Peggy Gou. The format is aimed beyond Pixel power users, most of whom already know much of what is coming.

The notification light sits in the Pixel 11 Pro’s camera island, where the flash normally is. The regular Pixel 11 may not have it, and its placement suggests the component could also serve as the flash and flashlight. Google has not said what it can do; leaks suggest it may light up when users talk to the chatbot or receive calls from certain contacts.

That would revive a distinctive part of Google’s phone history. Most Nexus phones included hardware notification LEDs, and the Pixel 2 briefly brought the feature back in 2017 before Google dropped it again. Those lights could show charging status, flash for notifications and use different colors; open-source Android skins and apps added controls for colors and blink rates.

Dedicated LEDs went out of fashion around the same time that always-on displays arrived. Nothing’s recent phones have instead made them more elaborate with complex light arrays and dot-matrix displays that can vary by app or contact. The new phones may also bring the usual chipset bumps, camera upgrades and design-language tweaks, but Google has not said what the Pixel 11 Pro’s light can do.

🍪 Preferințe cookie

Folosim cookie-uri pentru a măsura performanța. Politica de confidențialitate