Motional and Via are teaming up to launch a free robo-taxi service in Las Vegas. The news comes a year and a half after the two companies announced their intention to join forces to study how self-driving cars could interact with public transportation networks.
Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, has been testing its vehicles in Las Vegas and California. Via is a transportation software company that has operated on-demand vehicles in New York City and Washington, D.C. The two companies said they will launch a self-driving shuttle service in Las Vegas that will be free to use. Starting today, Motional's robotic vehicles can serve passengers in downtown Las Vegas on Via's smartphone app. The service will operate Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm. The vehicles are BMW 5 Series sedans, not the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric SUV, which Motional says will be the vehicle of choice for its future robo-taxi services.
These vehicles will have a safety driver in the front seat and pick-up locations will be pre-determined. These locations will be highlighted on Via's app, including the RTC Bonneville Transit Center, Las Vegas City Hall, Container Park, the Las Vegas Arts District and the Clark County Government Center. Las Vegas is no stranger to autonomous vehicles and shuttles. The city often has various companies testing their vehicles on the Strip and elsewhere, especially during the annual Consumer Electronics Show. There are also a few robo-shuttle services, most notably one operated by Keolis, which had a low-speed crash in 2017.
Motional isn't exclusively working with Via, either. The company plans to launch a commercial robo-taxi service in 2023. The service, which could launch in Las Vegas, will be available to Lyft's ride-hailing app after Lyft sold its own AV technology development to Toyota for $550 million last year. Motional as a joint venture was first announced in March 2020, when Hyundai Motor Co said it would spend $1.6 billion to develop a commercial business around autonomous vehicles. Aptiv, a technology company spun out of auto parts supplier Delphi, owns 50 percent of the joint venture. The company currently has facilities in Las Vegas, Singapore and Seoul, and has also tested its vehicles in Boston and Pittsburgh. In addition to Las Vegas, Motional is testing its vehicles in Santa Monica, California.
Motional engineers were responsible for the world's first robo-taxi pilot in Singapore and the first multinational autonomous trip from New York to San Francisco.
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