Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On the morning of August 17, Beijing time, it was reported that a new self-driving taxi service was officially launched in Las Vegas. The service, run by ride-hailing company Lyft and self-driving car company Motional, is a prelude to a completely self-driving service to be launched in New York in 2023.

Motional is a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and Aptiv. Motional has been testing self-driving cars in Las Vegas for more than four years in partnership with Lyft. Back in 2018, during the annual consumer electronics show, Aptiv and Lyft conducted a week-long test, and then completed more than 100000 passenger travel tests.

Today, the two companies announced the public launch of the service, marking the first time customers can ride in the company's self-driving all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5, which has been modified for commercial operations. A safe driver will sit behind the steering wheel in case of malfunction, similar to other robotic taxi services launched over the years. But Motional and Lyft say completely driverless vehicles will join the service next year.

Unlike other robotic taxi services in the United States, Motional and Lyft do not require potential passengers to sign waiting lists or confidentiality agreements to join the beta test program. Rides are currently free, and the two companies plan to start charging for the service next year.

"the service is open to the public," Akshay Jaising, Motional's vice president of commercialization, said in an email. "any Lyft passenger in Las Vegas can apply for Motional's autopilot service without confidentiality agreement or registration. This is how Motional and Lyft have been operating for the past four years. We believe that the best feedback comes from real passengers, not employees or limited participants."

Customers who want to ride in Motional self-driving cars will be able to use a series of new features to make this service different from Lyft's traditional vehicle service. For example, a customer can unlock a car door through the Lyft application. Once in the car, they can start the trip or contact customer support through the Lyft autopilot app installed on the touchscreen in the car.

Motional and Lyft say the new features have received "a lot of research and feedback from real passengers to maximize comfort and simplicity". The two companies are now offering new user features to the public in preparation for the service to be completely self-driving next year.

No confidentiality agreement, no registration. This is how Motional and Lyft have operated for the past four years.

Motional said it had obtained permission to "conduct a complete self-driving test anywhere in Nevada". The two companies said they would be given permission to conduct commercial rides for passengers before the launch of completely driverless cars in 2023.

Motional was first announced in March 2020, when Hyundai said it would spend $1.6 billion to catch up with competitors in self-driving cars, partnering with Aptiv, a technology company once known as Delphi. Aptiv has a 50 per cent stake in the joint venture. The company currently has plants in Las Vegas, Singapore and Seoul, and has conducted vehicle tests in Boston and Pittsburgh.

At present, only a small number of self-driving car operators have actually put completely self-driving vehicles on public roads, also known as Class 4 self-driving cars. Alphabet's self-driving subsidiary, Waymo, has operated its Class 4 car in suburban Phoenix, Arizona for many years, and is applying for a license in San Francisco.

Cruise, a controlling subsidiary of General Motors, has a self-driving car business service in San Francisco, but it only runs at night.

At the same time, Lyft has positioned itself as a platform where customers in cities across the country can arrange self-driving vehicles. The ride-hailing company sold its self-driving car research and development division to a Toyota subsidiary last year. Since then, Lyft has reached agreements with Motional, Waymo and Argo, a self-driving company invested by Ford and Volkswagen.

Motional is not the only company that uses Sin City as a base for robotic taxis. Amazon subsidiary Zoox is also testing its self-driving car in Las Vegas.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.