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Motional and Lyft to launch fully driverless ride-hail service in Las Vegas – and other cities

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Motional, a developer of driverless technology, and ride-hailing app Lyft are planning to launch a fully driverless public ride-hail service in Las Vegas, the first city in a multimarket rollout.

Motional’s next-generation robotaxis, the all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5-based robotaxi, will be available on the Lyft app in Las Vegas, starting in 2023. The implementation is part of a partnership between Motional and Lyft which started last year.

The service will be the first time fully driverless cars for use in a ride-hailing service are available to the public in Nevada. Launched by Aptiv in 2018 and now as Motional, the company has operated a public self-driving service with Lyft in Las Vegas for over three years. [Read more…] about Motional and Lyft to launch fully driverless ride-hail service in Las Vegas – and other cities

Motional invests in its Las Vegas operations with expanded testing and R&D capabilities

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Autonomous vehicle technology developer Motional has further invested in its Las Vegas operations with expanded testing and research and development capabilities.

Las Vegas has played an important role in Motional’s growth as a global driverless technology leader. It’s home to the company’s public robotaxi fleet, a service that has safely conducted over 100,000 public rides, and is also an important hub for its testing and research.

Motional is now significantly expanding its Las Vegas footprint as it continues to scale up ahead of its 2023 commercial robotaxi deployment. The company is tripling the size of its Las Vegas closed-course testing facility, doubling its operations center, and growing its Las Vegas team by over 100 new employees. This represents Motional’s largest operations investment in the Las Vegas area to date. [Read more…] about Motional invests in its Las Vegas operations with expanded testing and R&D capabilities

Hyundai and Motional unveil new robotaxi

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Auto manufacturer Hyundai and autonomous vehicle technology developer Motional have partnered to launch a new robotaxi.

The all-electric Ioniq 5-based robotaxi is Motional’s first commercial vehicle and will be used in its fully driverless public ride-hail service starting in 2023.

The vehicle represents the product of “unparalleled expertise and partnership” between Motional and Hyundai Motor Group. [Read more…] about Hyundai and Motional unveil new robotaxi

Motional and Lyft agree ‘world’s largest’ robotaxi partnership

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Motional and Lyft have signed what they describe as “the world’s largest robotaxi deployment partnership” in a deal that has the potential to make driverless vehicles a reality for millions of Americans.

Starting in 2023, consumers in select markets will be able to book a Motional robotaxi through the Lyft app. For many, this will be their first experience with driverless technology.

In a statement, Motional said: “Today, we unveil a key part of that experience. We’re excited to announce that the celebrated Hyundai Ioniq 5 will be the vehicle platform for Motional’s next-generation robotaxi.” [Read more…] about Motional and Lyft agree ‘world’s largest’ robotaxi partnership

Motional operates driverless vehicles on public roads in Las Vegas

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Motional is operating driverless vehicles on public roads, becoming one of the world’s first companies to do so. The inaugural testing took place in Las Vegas this month and consisted of multiple driverless vehicles safely navigating intersections, unprotected turns, and interactions with other road users, including pedestrians and cyclists.

In pursuit of this milestone and a future of safer roads, Motional set a high bar for the industry. The company’s driverless operation follows decades of innovation, 1.5 million miles, and a two-year self-imposed safety evaluation process that took hundreds of employees more than 100,000 hours to complete.

During this process, Motional proactively sought external review. TÜV SÜD, a world-leading independent technical service provider with extensive experience assessing driverless technology, was given access to the company’s proprietary systems, technology, and operations. [Read more…] about Motional operates driverless vehicles on public roads in Las Vegas

Motional and Lyft to launch fully driverless rideshare service

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Motional, a driverless technology developer, and rideshare service provider Lyft have agreed joint plans to launch a multimarket robotaxi service in major US cities, beginning in 2023.

Motional says its next generation, fully driverless vehicles will be integrated, operationalized, and implemented on the Lyft network.

The two companies claim this agreement marks the largest robotaxi partnership for a major ridesharing network. It follows an ongoing and successful three-year partnership, in which Motional and Lyft operate the world’s longest-standing commercial robotaxi service in Las Vegas. [Read more…] about Motional and Lyft to launch fully driverless rideshare service

Motional and Via partner to launch platform for public, on-demand shared robotaxi rides

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Motional, a driverless technology developer, and Via, a public mobility solutions provider, have agreed a partnership that they say will “serve as a blueprint for the future of on-demand, shared robotaxis”.

Motional and Via seek to use learnings from the partnership to inform how driverless vehicles can be integrated into mass transit networks, and optimized for pooled rides.

The partnership’s first service – shared robotaxi rides, available to the public – is expected to launch in one of Motional’s existing US markets in the first half of 2021. The initial launch market will be announced at a later date. [Read more…] about Motional and Via partner to launch platform for public, on-demand shared robotaxi rides

Motional expands nuScenes datasets for autonomous driving

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Motional, a startup developing driverless vehicle technology, has expanded nuScenes, the dataset that teaches autonomous vehicles how to safely engage with ever-changing road environments – nuScenes now includes nuScenes-lidarseg and nuImages.

nuScenes, created in March 2019, was the first publicly available dataset of its kind, and pioneered an industry-wide culture of safety-focused data-sharing and collaboration.

It launched as a collection of 1,000 urban “street-scenes” in Boston and Singapore. The scenes, composed of millions of photos and data-points collected from the vehicles’ full sensor suites, were then meticulously hand-annotated, and used to inform and advance machine learning models to build the safest possible self-driving vehicles. [Read more…] about Motional expands nuScenes datasets for autonomous driving

Survey suggests public has safety concerns about autonomous vehicles

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Motional, the driverless vehicle development company created by Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv, has released its inaugural Motional Consumer Mobility Report, which examines Americans’ perceptions of driverless vehicles.

The study found that one-fifth of Americans are more interested in driverless vehicles than they were before the pandemic.

The survey was carried out from July 17-21, 2020, and considered 1,003 responses from US consumers sampled using a blind online panel recruitment. The overall margin of error for the research is +/- 3.02 percent at a 95 percent confidence interval). [Read more…] about Survey suggests public has safety concerns about autonomous vehicles

Hyundai and Aptiv launch new autonomous driving joint venture Motional

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The autonomous driving joint venture between Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv has been given a name and brand identity: Motional. (See video below.)

Launched virtually to its employees around the world, the the companies say they are “making driverless vehicles a safe, reliable, and accessible reality”.

Formed by Hyundai Motor Group, one of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers offering smart mobility solutions, and Aptiv, one of the industry’s most innovative technology providers, the joint venture was established in March 2020 to advance the development and commercialization of the world’s highest-performing and safest autonomous vehicles. [Read more…] about Hyundai and Aptiv launch new autonomous driving joint venture Motional

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