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Uber Robotaxis Go Live In Las Vegas
Uber Robotaxis Go Live In Las Vegas-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:24

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are live in Las Vegas, marking the first time that Uber is offering app users rides in in a major U.S. city. But the ride-hailing service is not debuting a fleet of its own , and, instead, is partnering up with for a 10-year agreement that will kick off in Las Vegas, Nevada, before expanding to other major cities throughout America.

The Uber robotaxis will be available to the public in Vegas by selecting the UberX or Uber Comfort Electric options on the ride-hailing app starting today. There’s no need to be part of a beta group or have signed up beforehand; the robotaxi service is just there, waiting to be waved down (well, tapped on) via the Uber app. Users will have the option to turn down rides in the robotaxis if they’d rather not rely on autonomous vehicles. And since this is still in the early stages for Uber, there will be human operators in the AVs for safety reasons.

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Motional says its taxis are , which means they should be capable of operating without any help or intervention from human drivers, but putting AI behind the wheel of a 4,400-pound EV with gobs of torque can be risky. The cars are based on the , but are modified with a suite of onboard sensors that include cameras, radar, and lidar.

Uber knows all about the risk AVs can pose after having invested billions of dollars to develop its own robotaxis, which would supposedly have put Uber on the path to profitability. But developmental delays and the death of a pedestrian in 2017 forced Uber to shutter the program; the pedestrian was killed by an Uber AV in Tempe, Arizona, while crossing the street, according to the .

Now, it looks like Uber is unwilling to fall behind as autonomous vehicles keep moving forward in the U.S., with competitors such as offering public rides in robotaxis. But Uber would rather put the onus of AVs on , which is a joint-venture between Hyundai and Aptiv that’s been operating robotaxis in Las Vegas for five years, offering limited rides for users since 2018. That means these new Uber robotaxis won’t be a novel sight on the strip; these latest Hyundai Ioniq 5 EVs joining Uber will just wear a logo that they hadn’t worn before.

Image for article titled Uber Robotaxis Go Live In Las Vegas

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