Waymo has begun to offer autonomous taxi services to the public in batches in Las Vegas. This comes just a few weeks after it received final approval from the Nevada State Transportation Authority, making Las Vegas the 15th market for Waymo.
The first phase will cover the core areas first.
The first batch of services will utilize dozens of new Ojai small van vehicles. According to the company, the service area currently covers the southern section of Las Vegas Boulevard, the region south of Highway 589, and extends to Boulder Junction.
At this stage, the public needs to apply for an invitation first and obtain an access code before they can use the service. Following the practice of Waymo in other cities in the past, the service is usually made available to more users within one or two months after its official launch.
Las Vegas becomes a focal point of competition
Las Vegas is becoming a city where autonomous taxi companies are making concentrated arrangements. In addition to Waymo, Tesla, Zoox, and Motional also plan to launch commercial robotaxi services locally.
Earlier this month, Waymo also opened its robotaxi services to the invited public in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa, indicating that it is accelerating its expansion into the US market.
The annual licensing cap for the next year is 8,000 units.
The Nevada Department of Transportation previously approved Waymo to operate commercial robotaxi services in Clark County. Tesla and Uber have also obtained similar permits, and Uber will operate related fleets in collaboration with Motional and Zoox.
- Waymo Can operate up to 1,000 units.
- Tesla Up to 5,000 units can be deployed.
- Uber Can operate up to 1,000 units.
Calculated based on the permitted limit, Clark County can add up to 8,000 more robotaxi in the next 12 months. However, it is not certain that all of these will be put into use in the short term. Currently, Waymo is operating over 4,000 robotaxi in more than a dozen cities, and Tesla previously stated that increasing the fleet to around 2,500 in the coming year would be considered ideal progress.
