Amazon's Zoox opens its first major robotaxi production facility | TechCrunch
Amazon-owned autonomous vehicle company Zoox has opened its first full-fledged production facility, where it expects to be able to one day build 10,000 robotaxis per year.
The facility marks the latest step in Zoox’s evolution out of the development phase. The company is currently testing vehicles in multiple U.S. cities, and offering rides to employees in Las Vegas and San Francisco. Public access is expected to begin with an early-rider program in 2026.
The 220,000-square-foot factory is located in Hayward, California near its Foster City headquarters. This is Zoox’s second production facility in the Bay Area, adding to the assembly warehouse in nearby Fremont.
Zoox says the new factory will be used for engineering, software and hardware integration, assembly, storage, and testing. The Hayward production facility will assemble the custom-built Zoox robotaxis for multiple commercial markets, beginning with Las Vegas and then San Francisco. Zoox plans to roll out commercial robotaxi operations in Austin and Miami in the next few years.
The company says the facility’s “unique layout and building equipment” will be able to adapt to different vehicle designs as its robotaxi lineup expands in the future. The facility will be operated by a mix of human workers and robots. Human workers will handle the bulk of the work, according to Zooxwhich said robots will be used for specific tasks, such as applying adhesive for glass installation and transporting the robotaxi down the assembly line.
