Tech

Lyft unveils self-driving car service in Las Vegas (with advance notice)


Self-driving car services are springing up across the country. But they are not what they seem.

The latest example is an upgraded service in Las Vegas from ride-hailing company Lyft.

On Tuesday, the company said it will allow users to welcome a new kind of self-driving car on and around the Las Vegas Strip, building on a similar service it has offered in the city for the past four years. . But the news comes with an important warning: Riding in these vehicles will be two of what the industry calls a safe-driving driver, who will take control of the vehicle if anything goes wrong. happen.

The technology and automotive industries spent most of the last decade cars that promise to be able to drive themselves on the street. But many more years – perhaps even decades – will pass before autonomous vehicles become truly ubiquitous. Although the leading companies have made significant progress, making technology available to the masses is still a painstaking process.

“There are no self-driving systems ready to be deployed,” said Schuyler Cullen, who oversees the group exploring autonomous driving possibilities at South Korean tech group Samsung and now runs a start-up building. safely, in large quantities, in urban environments. A new type of camera for self-driving cars.

Earlier this year, three other companies introduced self-driving services in San Francisco, Miami and Austin, Texas. All said these services will not include safety drivers. And, in some cases, these vehicles are now operating without a driver. But they are only available to a handful of riders, many of whom are friends or family of company employees.

Reporters are not allowed to use these services without a driver behind the wheel.

As it stands, only one fully public service operates without a safe driver. Waymo, owned by parent company Google, offers driverless services in the Phoenix suburbs, where roads are wide, weather is predictable and pedestrians are few.

Even as the new services expand to places like San Francisco, they include important caveats. They will only be available in heavily restricted regions. They will operate at speeds below 35 or 40 mph. They will stop working when the weather is not favorable. And companies will hire technicians who can control the car remotely if anything is confusing.

This was expected, said Karl Iagnemma, chief executive officer of Motional, which will operate Lyft’s self-driving cars in Las Vegas. “The technology required for autonomous driving is incredibly complex,” he said. “The solution will be found step by step.”

Mr. Iagnemma points out that, unlike other services, anyone can ride in the Motional cars that Lyft is offering in Las Vegas. The cars will be more advanced than the ones Lyft has used in the city since 2018, and the two companies have launched a new app that can be used to open car doors.

Mr. Iagnemma said the company’s latest cars are the “path to driverless systems” that Lyft and Motional plan to launch next year.



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