Lyft and Motional have unveiled the all-electric IONIQ 5. The new robotaxi will be joining the company’s fleet of cars, marking its foray into driverless rides.
The autonomous car will launch first in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2022, with plans to expand to major cities across the United States the following year. Lyft and Motional said that the service is “designed to be scalable” and they plan to “introduce millions of riders to driverless technology in the future.”
Lyft users will be able to control their ride using the service’s app, from unlocking the car doors and beginning the ride to contacting customer support using the in-car Lyft AV app.
Lyft says that its Motional AVs, which have been in the works since 2018, are backed by extensive research and feedback to make the experience simple for customers to use.
“Launching Motional’s all-electric IONIQ 5 on Lyft’s network in Las Vegas represents tremendous progress in our vision to make an electric, autonomous, and shared future a reality for people everywhere,” Lyft CEO and co-founder Logan Green said. “Building an experience that Lyft riders love is core to advancing this technology, and today’s launch provides riders access to Motional’s autonomous technology in a way that will feel seamless, familiar, and personalized, all on a network they already trust.”
“We are designing an autonomous experience where the only expectation for riders is to relax and enjoy the ride,” he added.
Lyft and Motional will be making the new user features available to the public ahead of the service’s planned pivot to being fully driverless next year.
In other automotive news, Dodge now offers drop top custom-converted Challenger convertibles.
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