Motional on Monday announced it 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.
Following extensive progress in 2020, Motional has firmly established itself as the ridesharing industry’s robotaxi fleet provider of choice, and is uniquely positioned to commercialize driverless technology. It is the sole driverless technology provider to have partnerships with two ridesharing leaders, including an agreement to launch the largest robotaxi deployment for a major ridesharing network.
In 2023, Motional and Lyft will launch a scalable, fully-driverless, multimarket service — the largest agreement of its kind for a major ridesharing network, and a quantum leap forward for an already successful partnership. Lyft and Motional operate the world’s longest-standing commercial robotaxi service, and have provided more than 100,000 rides with zero at-fault incidents.
Motional is a joint venture between 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.
Karl Iagnemma, President and CEO, Motional
Not all driverless systems are created equal. Ours is the product of decades of innovation, a relentless commitment to safety and process, more than a million miles of testing, and a rigorous external review.
