Motional robotaxis launch on Uber in Las Vegas

Motional has launched its self-driving Ioniq 5 robotaxis—autonomous vehicles used for ride-hailing—on the Uber app in Las Vegas. Starting Friday, these vehicles are available to be hailed across five areas around the city, operating with a safety monitor in the car for now. The service operates in designated rideshare zones at the Resorts World and Encore hotel casinos on the Strip, as well as the Westgate hotel near the Las Vegas Convention Center. The vehicles will also handle trips to and from the Town Square shopping center near the city’s airport, and curbside in Downtown Las Vegas. While Uber and Motional plan to expand the operating area in the future, the companies expect to run a fully driverless service in Las Vegas by the end of this year.

The launch marks a significant recovery for Motional, which found itself in real trouble two years ago. Originally created as a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, the company struggled to launch its planned service with Uber rival Lyft. After Aptiv pulled out of funding the joint venture, Hyundai invested $1 billion into Motional to keep the startup operating. This financial lifeline arrived as Motional underwent a restructuring that resulted in layoffs of about 40% of its workforce.

To scale globally, Motional reworked its autonomous vehicle technology, pivoting to an approach based on neural networks—an AI approach used for autonomous vehicle technology. Motional president and CEO Laura Major explained the strategic shift during a presentation in January, stating: “We saw that there was tremendous potential with all the advancements that were happening within AI; and we also saw that while we had a safe, driverless system, there was a gap to getting to an affordable solution that could generalize and scale globally.” For Uber, the integration is part of a broader strategy to bring autonomous vehicles onto its platform, having signed deals with more than 25 companies globally. This week, Uber also announced plans to add self-driving vehicles in Tokyo, powered by U.K. autonomous vehicle tech startup Wayve, and Zoox robotaxis in Las Vegas later this year.

Why it matters

This launch is a critical test for Motional, which secured a $1 billion lifeline from Hyundai to pivot its technology and survive after a failed initial rollout.