Halo Car has removed safety drivers from its remote-piloted electric vehicles for a commercial launch in Las Vegas.

The driverless launch follows four years of testing where safety drivers were present inside the vehicles during remote piloting.

When someone books one of the EVs, the company remotely delivers the vehicle for the customer to drive. When they are finished, they end the booking and Halo Car remotely collects the vehicle. The company has been remote-delivering vehicles with safety drivers to customers since 2022.

Customers in Las Vegas can now book a Halo Car to their requested location and have it delivered without a safety driver in the vehicle.

“Rolling out driverless delivery is a huge step towards our goal of offering ubiquitous carshare on-demand,” said Anand Nandakumar, CEO of Halo Car. “We want to make it so easy to get a car on-demand that you no longer need to own a car, or use a rideshare service, you just call a car to drive when you need to go somewhere. Driverless delivery is critical to making this vision of on-demand vehicles economically viable.”

He said after testing for thousands of hours, the firm had proven its remote-piloting technology was robust enough to take the safety driver out.

“This commercial launch of driverless delivery is a landmark achievement not only for our company, but for the entire transportation industry,” said Nandakumar. “We are really pushing the boundaries of what people believed was possible.”

Halo Car retrofits its fleet of electric vehicles with cameras, modems, antennas and other custom-developed components to enable remote driving of the vehicle. Trained remote pilots at a Halo operations centre use video and sensor data streamed from the vehicle to drive the vehicle remotely. When they complete a remote delivery, they hand over control of the vehicle to the customer and connect to the next vehicle awaiting remote delivery or collection.

The vehicles are remote-piloted over T-Mobile 5G, with AT&T and Verizon used for additional stability. Halo has developed proprietary algorithms so the data streams use the strongest network connection available at any given time. This allows for reliable, high-quality streaming and low latency.

A key technology enabling the driverless rollout is Halo’s patent-pending anomaly detection system, which brings the driverless piloted car to a stop if it detects any connectivity issues during remote operations.

The vehicles will initially be followed by a second vehicle that monitors the health of the driverless-piloted vehicle and can stop the vehicle, if needed, as well as providing support if the piloted vehicle’s safety systems bring the vehicle to a stop.

“The safety of pedestrians and road users in Las Vegas is our highest priority,” said Joseph Decker, director of the compliance enforcement division of Nevada’s Department of Motor Vehicles. “Halo Car’s unique technology and spotless safety record have given us confidence in their ability to operate on public roads. Nevada has been a national leader in new automotive technology since 2011. Halo Car’s EV car sharing technology is exactly the type of innovation that we encourage and support.”

The rollout of driverless deliveries follows Halo’s funding in 2022 from Climatetech Investor At One Ventures, with T-Mobile Ventures, Earthshot Ventures and existing investor Boost VC also participating.

“Our transition to driverless deliveries marks a significant milestone for us as a company,” said Nandakumar. “It proves that our remote-piloting technology is not just innovative, but commercially viable and ready to be scaled up. As we prepare to expand and launch new markets, our mission remains unchanged: to provide affordable, accessible, efficient EV transportation. Today’s achievement is a major step forward in democratising mobility and heralds a new era of transportation that Halo Car will lead.”

Halo Car will offer driverless deliveries in downtown Las Vegas initially with availability in more areas of the city in coming months. The company plans to grow its fleet in Las Vegas to hundreds of vehicles before expanding to more cities in 2024.

Founded by Uber Advanced Technologies perception lead Anand Nandakumar, Halo Car’s mission is to accelerate the global transition to electric vehicles by offering convenient short-term rentals. Deliveries of Halo Car EVs are available in Las Vegas, with plans to expand to more cities in 2024.