All-electric rental car startup Halo this week announced plans for an autonomous vehicle service in Las Vegas, powered by T-Mobile 5G.
Halo, which has been test driving on Las Vegas public streets for months, hopes its on-demand electric vehicles will help address traffic congestion and carbon emissions in Nevada’s most populous city.
Like most car-sharing services, users can request a vehicle through the company app. Unlike most car-sharing services, however, the remotely operated Halo arrives and departs on its own at the beginning and end of your booking. Using proprietary technology, Halo’s in-house “drivers” remotely operate vehicles over T-Mobile’s 5G network. The firm’s “Advanced Safe Stop” feature enables cars to immediately halt if a safety hazard or system error is detected.
“Full autonomy is a massive challenge from both a technical and social trust perspective that won’t be solved for years to come,” Halo founder and CEO Anand Nandakumar said in a statement. “But Halo has been designed to address these challenges by building automation over time, starting with a solution that consumers will feel comfortable using today.”
During testing, Halo’s artificial intelligence algorithm learns in the background while humans control the vehicle, building a feedback loop to eventually achieve what’s known as “conditional driving automation.” Basically, the cars can make informed decisions for themselves, but still require human override. Halo expects to begin offering public rides later this year—initially in the urban parts of the Las Vegas Valley. The platform’s upfront daily fee includes unlimited charging of the EV.
There is no shortage of driverless cars on the streets of Las Vega: In 2018, Lyft began giving users the option to hail one of 30 self-driving vehicles, outfitted with Aptiv’s autonomous driving technology. A year later, Russian search and mapping giant Yandex made its US driverless debut at CES 2019.
