EVwire brief: Zoox will take its autonomous driving program outside the US for the first time in early 2027, with the Amazon-owned company sending its test fleet to Europe and Asia.
Zoox CEO Aicha Evans shared the plan on stage at The Wall Street Journal's Tech Live event on Wednesday, in a conversation with WSJ's Tim Higgins. Evans did not name confirmed cities, though she pointed to London, other European Union cities, South Korea and Japan as potential markets. She also said Zoox currently runs about 150 robotaxis across its US cities.
Evans was clear that the overseas fleet is there to lay the groundwork for an international launch, not to start one:
"One of the things that actually I'm happy to announce here is we're also going to send our test fleet in Europe and Asia to start essentially collecting data and scenarios there and to prepare for an international expansion...
"In Europe, there's London and then there are EU countries, right? And then it'd be fair to say that in Asia, countries like Korea, Japan and so on would be a target list. But first, this is not a commercial announcement. We're first going to go do some pathfinding, do some driving, some collecting of data."
Here’s the full interview:
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Evans announced the plan in a LinkedIn post after the event, describing it as the next step after a busy year for Zoox in the US:
"In early 2027, our test fleet will begin exploratory testing outside the U.S., starting with Europe and Asia. It's a milestone built on a big year at home: scaling serial production in Hayward, expanding into new cities, and adding more riders every week."
The overseas push will start with data collection rather than rides. Zoox will first send data-collection vehicles abroad, mirroring its approach in new US markets, where it maps roads, traffic lights and other key features by hand before running autonomous tests with a safety driver behind the wheel.
Those test vehicles are typically sensor-equipped Toyota Highlanders, with Zoox's purpose-built robotaxi only coming in once testing is done.
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Context:
Zoox has spent most of 2026 growing its footprint at home. Its robotaxi service, which launched in Las Vegas in 2025, now also carries riders in San Francisco, and the company is preparing to add Austin and Miami. In July, NHTSA granted Zoox a temporary exemption that cleared the way for paid rides in its purpose-built robotaxi, which has no steering wheel or pedals.
The company has also kept widening where it tests, bringing a small fleet to Denver this winter to train its system on snow and heavy rain, and this week it signed on as the official autonomous ride-hail partner of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
That being said, Zoox will be heading into a crowded field abroad. Waymo is coming to Madrid with its first riders targeted for 2027, and it will start testing an autonomous Toyota bZ4X fleet in Japan that same year, with the UK to follow. Pony.ai, meanwhile, is bringing its Gen-7 robotaxis to London through Uber.
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