Jeff Bezos gains edge on Musk with approval to deploy no-wheel Zoox robotaxis

Amazon’s Zoox won federal clearance on Thursday to start charging passengers for rides in robotaxis that have no steering wheel and no pedals.

With this approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Jeff Bezos has scored a win over Elon Musk in the race to put driverless cars on city streets.

Has Zoox overtaken Tesla?

For the first time, the U.S. government has given approval for a vehicle designed without any manual controls. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cleared Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) self-driving unit, Zoox, to charge passengers for rides in robotaxis that have no steering wheels or pedals.

Notably, Zoox received approval to operate despite the fact that federal safety rules are still written with the assumption that a human sits behind a wheel. The company has already carried passengers for free in Las Vegas and San Francisco, with free service also running in Austin and Miami. It will launch paid rides starting in Las Vegas, with plans to expand to other cities as it clears state and local rules.

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