One robotaxi player has grown its share of users so far in 2026 — and it's not Waymo

12 hours ago 8

A woman carrying a brown paper shopping bag steps out of a Zoox self-driving robotaxi as a light green Zoox banner sits behind it and skyscrapers stand in the distance.

One robotaxi provider is picking up speed against the competition.

Amazon-owned Zoox grew its share of monthly active users to 25% from 15% during the first half of 2026, according to data from Apptopia.

Waymo, which has long been the largest self-driving taxi service in the US, had about 69% of monthly active users in June. That was down from 79% in January, according to Apptopia. The Alphabet-owned company drew data from app stores and its panel of about 15 million users across a variety of apps.

Zoox has spent the first six months of 2026 expanding its operations. The service launched rides in Austin and Miami and expanded its service areas in San Francisco and Las Vegas. Zoox also said last month that it's ramping up production of a new robotaxi.

At the same time, Zoox has about doubled its number of monthly active users, according to Apptopia.

Waymo, meanwhile, grew its monthly active users by 15% over the same period, albeit on a larger base. The service operates in 11 US cities from Atlanta to Los Angeles and temporarily paused service in some areas in May as its vehicles dealt with issues in flooding and construction zones.

Zoox may be growing fast, but the data also contains some encouraging signs for Waymo.

While Waymo lost share of riders aged 26 to 45, it "grew several times over" among users 17 to 25 between January and June, according to a report outlining Apptopia's findings. That's an encouraging sign for the service, since "younger riders age into the highest-value years for a category built on habit," the report says.

"None of this dents the structural point that Waymo is years ahead in driverless miles and commercial cities," the report reads.

Now, though, a big question is "how much new demand Waymo keeps, because Zoox is competing for it in the same neighborhoods," Apptopia said.

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Alex Bitter is a senior retail reporter covering the gig economy, food, and retail. His work focuses major gig delivery and ride-hailing apps, including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, and Walmart's Spark. He is interested in everything from what it's like to work on the apps to the companies' business strategies.Some of his recent stories feature gig workers who have been deactivated on the apps, DoorDash hiring traditional employees to make deliveries, gig workers' use of bots, and gig work expanding into new professions, such as nursing.Alex has also written about Aldi's US expansion, Starbucks' turnaround efforts, and the fallout from Kraft-Heinz's budget cutting. Convenience store chain Sheetz ended its "smile policy" after his reporting.Before joining Insider in September 2020, he wrote about consumer and retail companies for S&P Global Market Intelligence. He's a graduate of the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and grew up on the Big Island.Alex lives in the Washington, DC, area, where you can find him studying ancient coins or searching for Civil War artifacts with his metal detector in his free time.Got a tip? Reach out at [email protected] or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (808) 854-4501.