from the what-happens-in-the-autonomous-taxi-stays-in-the-autonomous-taxi dept.
Uber Launches Robotaxi Service in Las Vegas:
The future of ridesharing has arrived in Las Vegas. In a press release, driverless technology company Motional announced a non-exclusive 10-year partnership with Uber allowing users of the ridesharing app to hail a robotaxi in the Silver City.
The launch marks the first time Uber customers will be able to book rides with an autonomous vehicle. However, the lifts won't be completely devoid of human interaction. The Verge reports that the pilot program will feature safety drivers behind the wheel of the all-electric Hyundai IONIQ 5-based robotaxis. The company intends to have completely driverless rides in 2023.
Robotaxis are now available for UberX and Uber Comfort Electric tiers in the ridesharing app. And, for now, rides are free. Although, both companies state that paid fares will be coming in the near future.
For the first time, the Uber app can be used to hail an autonomous vehicle:
It's the first time that autonomous vehicles have been made available to customers on Uber's app. The company signed a 10-year deal with Motional to deploy AVs on its ride-hailing and delivery platforms earlier this year.
The deal isn't exclusive: Motional also operates an autonomous taxi service in Las Vegas with Uber's main competitor Lyft, while Uber has a 10-year deal with Nuro to use the company's driverless delivery pods in California and Texas. (Uber also has a delivery pilot underway with Motional in Santa Monica.)
[...] Motional says its next market for both ride-hailing customers will be Los Angeles. California requires AV companies to obtain a series of permits from the state's Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Utilities Commission before they are legally approved to ferry passengers, accept money for trips, and operate fully driverless cars as part of a commercial service. The company has applied for the first of these permits with the California DMV but has yet to receive approval.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Monday December 12, @10:29AM (1 child)
So there will be SD cabs on the street while Musk can't get them to work in his single lane reserved traffic Loop tunnel?
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 12, @05:52PM
I mean, I've also not heard of Musk's tunnel vehicles running over pedestrians / bikers.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday December 12, @05:00PM (1 child)
Las Vegas could significantly expand its monorail service. Chances are fairly high that they can keep monorails strictly on the tracks without having accidents with nuisance pedestrian traffic.
Supply chain shortages might make it difficult to build out the system. Supply chain shortages are affecting everything from distilled water to availability of mod points.
How often should I have my memory checked? I used to know but...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12, @06:06PM
> ...from distilled water to availability of mod points.
Weirdest one I've seen is no availablity of sewn bindings (for high quality hard-bound books). As I heard the story (3rd hand), all the binderies shut down with the virus, the operators of the book sewing machines left...and haven't come back. So binderies are only making "perfect bound" (glue) books.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday December 12, @06:55PM
How about, instead of these small taxis, we used a bigger vehicle that could hold more people at a time, and come by every 5-10 minutes or so to minimize wait times. That seems potentially like a real improvement to logistics there, since we have a lot of people to move and it's easier to move 1 large vehicle with 10 people in it than 5 small vehicles with 2 people in them. And since we're already employing human drivers for safety, we don't even necessarily need the newfangled self-driving gizmos on these larger vehicles. And maybe we should keep this nice and low-cost to riders both to encourage more people to use it and for the convenience of locals who need to get to work at the casinos and such.
Not high-tech enough for you? Well, we can do even better by having these larger vehicles ride on metal rails in the middle of the street, powered by electricity so they're not spewing pollution onto the Strip. And if we're worried about these vehicles' speed through all the car traffic maybe we can put them on a dedicated right-of-way or even underground.
I'm sure glad nobody has ever thought of doing these sorts of things before. But I realize they might not solve the unstated requirement of not being in the same vehicle as those people, because being in the same vehicle as those people makes other kinds of people not feel safe, so they're non-starters I guess. Even in a city notorious for making you lose all your money and possibly more even if nothing criminal happens to you during your stay.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.