Are Driverless Rideshare Cars Still Running in Downtown Las Vegas?

A few years ago they were experimenting with driverless rideshare cars in downtown Las Vegas. Are they still running?

As of today, Uber advertises rides in driverless Motional vehicles, but only between “popular locations on the Las Vegas Strip.”

Lyft is a bit more vague as to where its Motional cars operate -- definitely the Strip, but possibly downtown.

We asked Las Vegas Metro (which reported no attendant traffic issues from the robotic vehicles) for confirmation, but it passed the buck.

Calls to the City of Las Vegas weren’t returned.

Finally, the last time Professor Google reported any news about Motional was in 2022.

Since this question came in, we've been on the lookout for driverless rideshares downtown, but haven't seen any. If anyone out there in QoDland has seen Motional cars downtown, please let us know.

Meanwhile, a new robotaxi service is being unveiled in Las Vegas. Zoox is an autonomous ride-share subsidiary of Amazon. Its cars are instantly recognizable; they look like toy cars with their weird shape, large doors on both sides of the vehicle, cameras on the roof, and if you look closely, no steering wheels. Once in the car, they don't have pedals either. Who needs them? These cars seat up to four passengers facing one another. They're still, reportedly, in the testing phase, but the "geofence" has been expanded to a five-mile radius around the company’s Las Vegas headquarters and the cars are traveling, without a safety officer, at speeds of up to 45 mph. You can see a video of them here.

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Comments

AL Jun-14-2024

Will not use them

I don't care how spiffed-up a driver-less taxi is, I will never use one, because the technology is still really imperfect, and there could be an accident that harms or kills me, so why take the chance?  Oh, and in case you didn't know, the technology has a hard time discerning dark-skinned people (especially African Americans), so these robo-taxis could hit and kill one on my trip, and I don't want any part of that, either.

Gambler_7 Jun-14-2024

Danger

Driverless in Vegas seems dangerous AF!

MeBlonde Jun-14-2024

Driverless cars

Was driving in Phoenix recently and saw one of the taxi's. Took me a minute to figure out what it was as the top looked like a ad for a pizza place! Then saw no driver. Never saw it before and it looked interesting from the outside, but I doubt if I would take one.

Brent Peterson Jun-14-2024

Drivers

Drivers in Las Vegas ARE dangerous as fudge!

David Miller Jun-14-2024

Obvious

 The stupidity of the "driverless" concept is beyond comprehension to any sane person.

Fumb Duck Jun-14-2024

Brent

If drivers in Vegas are so bad, maybe that makes LV a good test site. And what happens if one of those cars has an accident or a mechanical failure while you are a passenger? I wouldn't trust them or the politicians that make them possible.

Brent Jun-14-2024

Robotaxis or Remote Controlled Taxis

I am skeptical that they are actually "driverless." The 5-mile radius from the headquarters and 45 mph speed limit suggests to me that they are actually remote-driven by human operators.

Thomas Dikens Jun-14-2024

Driverless Cars

I would  take a driverless cab no problem.  While it never happened in Vegas, I have had many cab drives with clearly exhausted drivers.  One was actually "head snapping" while trying to stay awake.  Many cabs trips in the Northeast with stoned drivers on drugs.  On one memorable cab trip in Boston, the driver and is friend were snorting drugs wile driving.  I offered the driver an extra ten bucks to slow down.  He declined.  At least computers don't get tired or stoned.  Once the stats reflect that driverless cars have lower accident rates than human cabs the contest will be over.

Hoppy Jun-14-2024

Re: Dikens

Good observation

PaulaNH Jun-15-2024

Driverless cabs

I was stuck in a MASSIVE traffic full on stop in Phoenix due to a driverless car. Nope, would walk before I got into one

Question of the Day - 14 June 2024

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