Robotaxis in the US: how they work and who regulates them

Robotaxi headlines often mix consumer driver-assistance, state road permits and federal defect investigations. Those are different layers. Here is how the vehicles work, who is actually carrying riders, and how a recall or a recall query fits in.

What is a robotaxi?

A robotaxi is a vehicle whose automated driving system performs the driving task inside a limited service area, so the people inside are passengers rather than backup drivers. That matches how NHTSA describes Level 4 automation: when the system is engaged, it handles all driving tasks in limited service areas, not universally, and a human driver is not needed.

NHTSA draws a sharp line between that setup and the driver-assistance features on cars you can buy today. At Levels 0 through 2, you remain responsible for driving even when the system is steering, braking or warning you. Level 3 still requires you to take over when the system asks. Level 4 and Level 5 systems, NHTSA says, are not available on today's vehicles for consumer purchase. What is on public roads, the agency adds, are limited testing, research and pilot programs that states permit, which NHTSA monitors through its Standing General Order.

How do robotaxis work?

The vehicle's automated driving system, not a person in the driver's seat, handles the trip inside the area and conditions the operator has designed for, often called an operational design domain. Waymo describes its "Waymo Driver" as a combination of lidar, cameras, radar and an AI compute platform that provide a 360-degree view and then decide where the vehicle is, what is around it, what happens next and what to do. Zoox likewise describes a sensor suite of cameras, lidar and radar with a 360-degree field of view, and remote support from Mission Control, TeleGuidance and rider support staff. Riders typically hail a vehicle through an app, confirm the car and start the trip from a screen or the app.

The hardware is not all the same. Waymo says riders travel in all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles and, in a growing set of cities, in its Ojai vehicle, and that on most trips no one is in the driver's seat, though autonomous specialists sometimes ride there to monitor the system. Zoox and Tesla describe purpose-built vehicles that omit traditional driver controls. Tesla says its Cybercab has no steering wheel, pedals or mirrors and seats up to two passengers, while its Model Y robotaxis can carry up to four. Because Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards were written around a human driver, a vehicle without those controls may need a NHTSA exemption. Zoox says its exemptions cover driver-oriented equipment such as a brake pedal, a physical turn-signal switch, mirrors and windshield wipers, with a custom system to keep sensors clear in rain.

Which companies operate robotaxis in the US?

Several companies are carrying riders, but the claims, the vehicles and the state permits are not interchangeable. The locations below are what the companies themselves list; they are not an independent check of every street or permit. California's DMV list is the official record for that state only.

California's deployment list as of Nov 5, 2026 also includes Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, with daytime freeway limits, and Nuro, with low-speed operations in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. Those permits are not the same as a robotaxi ride-hail service.

On July 30, 2026, Zoox said it had received the first commercial NHTSA exemption for a purpose-built robotaxi, after a demonstration exemption in August 2025, giving it federal approval to charge for rides. In that same announcement, the company said it was still working with Nevada and California regulators to complete requirements for commercial operations. Do not read the federal exemption as a substitute for those state steps, or as a later confirmation that fares were already being collected everywhere it operates.

What does NHTSA regulate, and what do the states regulate?

NHTSA regulates the vehicle. States regulate who may take it onto public roads, and, in California, who may charge for a prearranged ride.

In 2025, NHTSA says, the US Department of Transportation issued a new automated-vehicle framework that included an amendment to the Standing General Order and domestic exemptions under the agency's automated-vehicle exemption program. Zoox's 2025 demonstration exemption and 2026 commercial exemption sit in that federal lane, not in place of California or Nevada permits.

What does a recall or a recall query mean for a driverless fleet?

A recall is a required remedy after NHTSA or the manufacturer identifies a safety-related defect or a failure to meet a federal safety standard. NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation administers those campaigns, including monitoring and verification of notifications and remedies. The agency says a recall never expires.

An investigation is the step that asks whether a defect exists and whether a recall is warranted. NHTSA lists four defect-investigation types, with target completion times: a Defect Petition (four months), a Preliminary Evaluation (eight months), a Recall Query (eight months) and an Engineering Analysis (18 months). A recall query is the one that starts after a recall is already underway. Its purpose is to "assess the adequacy of the remedy," not to announce that the agency has already found the fix failed.

For a driverless fleet, the product under review can include the automated driving software, so a remedy may be a software update pushed to vehicles already on the road. That is why regulators care about when an update was actually installed, and about incidents that happened after that date. NHTSA's November 2026 recall query into Waymo's school-bus software fix is an example of that process: it is a question about whether a prior remedy worked, not a final finding.