Zoox has issued a software recall after one of its robotaxis had trouble navigating a smoke-filled emergency scene in June.
The Amazon-owned company said on Friday that it has sent its fleet of 105 vehicles a software update that should address the problem. Zoox told TechCrunch in a statement that the software update “enhances the existing ability to detect active [emergency] scenes by adding the ability to detect and respond to heavy smoke in specific situations.”
No one was in the vehicle during the June incident, and Zoox told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that it is not aware of any injuries related to the problem. The NHTSA report does not say where the June incident occurred, and Zoox declined to say.
Zoox’s recall comes just a week after NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison sent a letter to self-driving car companies warning them to stop interfering with first responders.
“Let me be clear: the failure to identify and respond appropriately to such situations represents a functional deficiency,” he wrote. “Emergency scenes are not rare or extreme ‘peak cases.’ Therefore, NHTSA is issuing a call to action today for AV developers and operators to immediately focus their resources on solving this problem.”
TechCrunch previously reported on how Waymo has had repeated run-ins with first responders as it expands into new cities. The company has had at least six incidents since March of this year in which first responders had to physically move the robotaxi from an emergency scene.
NHTSA said in its report describing the recall that, on June 20, a Zoox robotaxi “encountered heavy smoke that obscured an active emergency fire scene that was not blocked off with cones.” The Zoox vehicle “braked hard while attempting to pull away before coming to a stop.” A Zoox remote operator was able to reverse the vehicle away from the scene, allowing first responders to deploy traffic cones.
Zoox told NHTSA that it was conducting an investigation to determine the root cause and identify any similar incidents. The company said that “this is the only event of its kind that Zoox has experienced” and that through late June and early July, it had several conversations with the safety regulator about the “severity, frequency and root causes.” Zoox decided to issue the recall on July 7, one day before Morrison’s letter.
This isn’t Zoox’s first recall. The company voluntarily recalled the software in its vehicles in March 2025 to resolve a harsh braking issue that NHTSA had been investigating since 2024. It issued two more recalls in May 2025 after a crash involving a passenger car and an incident where a Zoox vehicle was hit by an e-scooter rider.
Zoox is steadily expanding its trials to new cities and is offering free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco ahead of the planned commercial launch. That launch is contingent on the NHTSA granting the company an exemption from certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards because Zoox’s robot taxi has no steering wheel or pedals. NHTSA also recently proposed removing the brake pedal requirement for vehicles built to be fully autonomous.
This story has been updated with a statement from Zoox.
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