Amazon's Zoox issues a software recall after a robotaxi drove into heavy smoke

6:12 PM · July 17, 2026

Amazon's self driving unit Zoox issued a voluntary software recall covering 105 of its robotaxis after one of its vehicles failed to detect heavy smoke and drove into an active fire scene, according to CNBC. On June 20, an unoccupied Zoox vehicle encountered heavy smoke that obscured an emergency scene that had not yet been cordoned off with cones, entered the area, then braked hard while attempting to steer away before coming to a stop. A Zoox teleguidance employee instructed the vehicle to reverse once first responders placed traffic cones to block off the scene. Zoox notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the recall on July 8, saying it became aware of the smoke detection gap following the incident. The recall lands just after NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison issued a directive to autonomous vehicle developers requiring their vehicles to reliably get out of the way of first responders, after the agency identified a clear pattern of driverless cars interfering with law enforcement and emergency crews. The episode adds to a running set of edge cases, ranging from smoke to construction zones to emergency vehicles, that have proven difficult for self driving software to handle reliably even as the underlying technology has matured.