Ioniq 5 EV Level 4 robotaxis will be used by Lyft and Motional to launch a driverless ride-hailing service in Los Angeles. The two businesses, which earlier this year began providing public rides in Las Vegas, will start serving Los Angeles as their second location.
Exactly two years have passed since Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, began testing autonomous vehicles without safety drivers. The Ioniq 5 vehicles will be included into Lyft’s Los Angeles network, similar to the Las Vegas service. The Lyft app can be used to unlock the doors when the car arrives, and there is a passenger display in every car that can be used to reach a remote agent at any time.
“Los Angeles was the second city Lyft launched back in 2013 and it’s only fitting that it will be the second AV market we launch with our partner, Motional,” said Lyft CEO Logan Green in a statement. “Los Angeles is the second most populated city in the U.S. and represents a huge market opportunity for AV adoption,” added Motional CEO Karl Iagnemma.
Motional says it has given 100,000-plus rides in Las Vegas with Lyft and received over 95 percent five-star ratings. The company recently signed a 10-year agreement with Uber as well, saying its vehicles will be “strategically deployed” in cities around the US and that it will start offering passenger rides later this year.
Apart from Motional, only Alphabet division Waymo and GM’s Cruise are offering true driverless services at a reasonably large scale. The Waymo One service is operating in Phoenix and San Francisco, while Cruise rides are currently limited to San Francisco. Both operate only in specific areas of cities and some vehicles still use safety riders.
