Since 2018, driverless tech company Motional has been operating a fleet of autonomous vehicles in partnership with Lyft in a testing capacity in Las Vegas. That means that self-driving vehicles were on the road, but there was a driver behind the wheel making sure everything was working fine. In total, the robotaxi service has provided 100,000 rides in Las Vegas.
Photo: Motional/Facebook
Fully Driverless Cars Could Be Coming to Las Vegas in 2021
Now, Motional is ready to take the next step toward a fully self-driving fleet of Level 4 vehicles, as the company has just been given the all-clear by the state of Nevada to get rid of the driver entirely.
Karl Iagnemma, president and CEO of Motional, said on the company’s website, “This has been a landmark year for both the driverless industry and Motional, and we’re quickly approaching another milestone: in the coming months, Motional will go fully driverless on public roads.”
The general public likely won’t see these cars until 2021, but for now they’re slated to be tested on closed courses to ensure safety. 