Motional To Launch Driverless Robotaxis In Las Vegas In 2023

  • Date: 09-Nov-2021
  • Source: Forbes
  • Sector:Tourism
  • Country:Gulf
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Motional To Launch Driverless Robotaxis In Las Vegas In 2023

As a city that relies heavily on taxis and ride-hailing services to move people around among the various casinos and other venues, it's no wonder that Las Vegas was one of the first in the world to get a commercialized self-driving ride service. Aptiv APTV began offering rides in its fleet of automated BMW 5 series prototypes back in 2018 through the Lyft LYFT platform. Aptiv's automated driving division is now part of the Motional joint venture with Hyundai and it has selected Las Vegas as the first of several cities that will get fully driverless robotaxis in 2023. Earlier this year, Motional announced plans to launch commercial driverless robotaxi services in multiple cities in 2023 in partnership with Lyft. Cities beyond Las Vegas are yet to be announced. By the time those services debut, Motional will have retired its BMW fleet in favor of its fourth-generation platform based on the Hyundai Ioniq 5 EV. The Ioniq 5 in robotaxi form was publicly unveiled in September 2021 during the IAA Mobility show in Munich, Germany. Ioniq 5 test vehicles are already on the road in Las Vegas and other locations. However, they won't be making their way into Motional's Lyft