Zoox plans to bring robotaxi to the Uber app in Las Vegas this year.

Amazon-owned Zoox plans to make its robotaxis available on the Uber app in Las Vegas later this year, the companies announced Wednesday.

But before that happens, Zoox needs federal approval to commercially deploy its robotaxi, which has no steering wheel or pedals. This requires an exemption from the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Starting Wednesday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began taking public comments on Zoox’s waiver application. (Zoox currently has an exception that allows custom robotaxi to operate for demonstration purposes rather than commercial purposes.)

If Zoox gets approval, the company plans to launch its own commercial robotaxi service first, it told TechCrunch before offering rides to Uber in Las Vegas. Zoox currently offers free rides in Las Vegas and San Francisco. It is also planning and building operations in eight other U.S. cities, including Dallas and Phoenix, which were announced earlier this week.

Zoox and Uber described it as a “multi-year strategic partnership” that includes plans to launch in Los Angeles in 2027.

This is Zoox’s first third-party partnership with a platform like Uber. But this certainly isn’t Uber’s first partnership with a self-driving car company. Uber partners with more than 25 self-driving car companies around the world. The most notable deal is with Waymo, which will make robotaxi available on Uber’s platform in Austin and Atlanta. Uber also announced a partnership with China’s Baidu and will begin testing self-driving cars in London this year. The passenger car giant also has AV partnerships with Volkswagen, May Mobility and Pony AI.

Uber has also been building new services for these robotaxi partners. In January, TechCrunch reported that the company had launched an ‘AV Labs’ division dedicated to collecting real-world driving data to power its partners’ autonomous systems. Last month, Uber announced the creation of a division called Uber Autonomous Solutions to provide operations, software, and support services.

Zoox is seeking exemptions from eight of the FMVSS, including the standard requiring vehicles to be equipped with windshield defroster systems and windshield wipers. NHTSA will accept public comments for 30 days, but it is unclear when the federal safety agency will issue a ruling.

At a hearing on self-driving car safety on Tuesday, NHTSA Administrator Jonathan Morrison appeared eager to move forward with a clearer regulatory plan for self-driving cars.

“We believe it is time to move past the handshakes and hype, and we are finally doing the hard policy work needed to provide appropriate and strong oversight of the sector while removing the unnecessary and unintended barriers to innovation that currently exist,” he said. “This will not be easy, but I firmly believe it is in our hands and we at NHTSA are moving with a great sense of urgency to get this job done.”