[Auto] Hyundai-backed autonomous vehicle company to begin testing in Las Vegas

[FNX Magokiler]

The firm named Motional seeks to follow in Waymo's footsteps and launch an emergency driverless robotaxis service in the coming years.

The race to perfect autonomous vehicles is still red hot, and now Motional, backed by Korean giant Hyundai, has joined the exclusive group that has been given the green light to test its cars on open roads. The company obtained approval from Las Vegas, a city in the state of Nevada, to deploy a fleet of emergency vehicles without a human driver. The aim of the firm is to continue developing this technology to launch it on the market in the short term. In fact, as reported by The Verge, Motional's goal is to follow in Waymo's footsteps and begin operating with an autonomous taxi service for a restricted audience in the coming years.

 

 

It should be remembered that Waymo, one of the most advanced in the field, officially opened the driverless taxi service last October in Phoenix, an American city in Arizona that served as a testing center for the company for years. Now, Motional hopes to put its own version of autonomous transportation service vehicles on the streets. "These robotaxis will be 'driverless ready', which means they will roll off the assembly line integrated with sensors, computers and software to enable driverless operation," a company spokesperson quoted as saying by The Verge said. "We look forward to making them available to fleet operators and partners in 2022. Details on implementation and integration will be worked out as these partnerships come together," he added. Along with Motional or Waymo, there are also other companies that have received the green light to deploy their autonomous vehicles in different states, but so far they have not started the rigorous tests. The international press estimates that during the next few years autonomous vehicles will take over the automotive industry with force with various players such as Cruise, Zoox, Tesla and Waymo himself, among others.