Motional and Lyft resume Vegas AV service 

Firms say extensive sanitation measures will keep passengers 'safe and healthy'
By Ben Spencer November 3, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Motional says its fleet has provided more than 100,000 rides since 2018 (image credit: Motional)

Motional and Lyft have resumed their autonomous vehicle (AV) mobility service in Las Vegas after implementing protective measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Motional says the measures include a partition between the front and rear seats, vehicle operator personal protective equipment and vehicle sanitisation at the start and end of each trip as well as between rides. 

Karl Iagnemma, CEO at Motional, says: "We've put extensive measures in place to keep our fleet thoroughly and frequently sanitised, and our passengers safe and healthy.”

Nadeem Sheikh, vice president, AV programs at Lyft, says: "Getting this fleet back up and running is a significant jumping-off point as we prepare to launch a robust set of new features for the self-driving fleet."

Riders can book a robotaxi via Lyft's app. 

Motional says the fleet has provided more than 100,000 rides to members of the public since it launched in 2018. 

In August, Motional became the official name behind a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and Aptiv which seeks to develop safe and accessible AVs. 

“What we’re building is more relevant than ever. The pandemic has challenged the global community to re-think transportation, and governments and individuals want more and better options,” Iagnemma adds. 

The company has set out to develop SAE Level 4 vehicles and make its autonomous technology available to robotaxi providers and fleet operators in 2022. 


 

Mass Transit & MaaS

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Enforcement ensures equity for toll road users
    January 25, 2018
    All-electronic tolling boosts traffic flow but introduces the tricky question of enforcement. Workable solutions are starting to emerge. Enforcement is an essential part of tolling and one of the most important ways for a mobility agency to keep faith with its investors, its community stakeholders and the vast majority of its users. It can also be one of the most unpopular and contentious things a toll authority has to undertake. If tolling is about paying for the roads, then everyone has to pay their
    Read More
  • FPT enters agreement to develop self-driving EVs in Vietnam
    April 24, 2019
    Vietnamese information technology company FPT Software has partnered with Yamaha Motor and urban developer Ecopark to self-driving electric vehicles (EVs). The partners say they are seeking to accelerate the adoption of autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies and bring smart public transport to Vietnam. Hoang Nam Tien, FPT’s chairman, says: “We hope this collaboration would bring us to the day where autonomous cars using our technologies could travel across urban areas, luxury resorts, factories and warehous
    Read More
  • In-vehicle vision-based systems and autonomous vehicles
    January 11, 2013
    The Artificial Vision and Intelligent Systems Laboratory (VisLab) of Italy’s Parma University has built itself a fine pedigree in basic and applied research which has developed machine vision algorithms and intelligent systems for the automotive field. In 1998, a VisLab-equipped Lancia Thema named ‘Argo’ travelled along the famous Mille Miglia race route and completed 98 per cent of it autonomously using then-current technology. In 2005, VisLab provided the vision element of the Terramax, a collaborative un
    Read More
  • US regulator ‘paves the way for Google’s self-driving car’
    February 11, 2016
    A letter to Google, the US federal transport regulator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), appears to pave the way for self-driving cars, but adds the proviso that the rule-making could take some time. Google had requested clarification of a number of provisions in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs) as they apply to Google’s described design for self-driving vehicles (SDVs). “If no human occupant of the vehicle can actually drive the vehicle, it is more reasonable
    Read More

Highlighted Content