Uber has incorporated Motional’s autonomous vehicles into its expanding robotaxi service. Motional’s self-driving Ioniq 5 is now operational for rides in five areas around the city, with a safety monitor onboard for the time being.
Starting Friday, these vehicles will pick up and drop off passengers in designated rideshare zones at Resorts World, Encore hotel casinos, the Westgate near the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Town Square shopping center close to the airport, and Downtown Las Vegas.
Uber and Motional announced plans to enlarge the service area in the future but did not provide specific details. Like in other cities, there is no option to specifically request a robotaxi. Users can increase their chances by enabling autonomous vehicle pickup in the Uber app.
The companies anticipate launching a fully driverless service in Las Vegas by the end of the year.
This Las Vegas launch represents a significant achievement for Motional, which faced challenges two years ago. Initially founded as a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, the company struggled to initiate a robotaxi service with Lyft. Following Aptiv’s withdrawal from funding the joint venture, Hyundai chose to invest an additional $1 billion into Motional, leading to a restructuring that resulted in layoffs of about 40% of its employees. The company shifted its approach to focus more on neural networks for its autonomous vehicle technology.
Motional President and CEO Laura Major stated that the advancements in AI presented tremendous potential, although there was still a gap in reaching a cost-effective, scalable solution. This led to the decision to slow down commercial activities temporarily to facilitate future acceleration.
Demo drives during the tech conference in January showed promise, despite some consumer software needing further development. Motional has been operating a Las Vegas robotaxi service for its employees and plans to launch in more cities with both Uber and Lyft.
Uber has established partnerships with numerous global autonomous vehicle companies. This week, Uber announced plans to add self-driving Nissan Leaf EVs in Tokyo, powered by Wayve’s technology, and integrate Zoox robotaxis into its Las Vegas app later this year.