Mobility company Lyft and Massachusetts-based driverless technology firm Motional plan to launch a fully driverless public ride-hail service in Las Vegas.

This will be the first city in a multimarket deployment and will see Motional’s all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 5-based robotaxis available on the Lyft app in Las Vegas, starting in 2023.

The deployment is part of a partnership between Motional and Lyft announced last year.

The service will be the first time fully driverless cars for use in a ride-hailing service will be available to the public in Nevada. Launched by Aptiv in 2018 and now as Motional, the company has operated a public self-driving service with Lyft in Las Vegas for over three years.

The 2023 deployment represents a significant expansion, and will be the first time passengers experience a fully driverless Lyft and Motional ride.

With plans to launch in multiple markets, the service is also designed to be scalable and positions both Motional and Lyft to introduce millions of riders to driverless technology in the future.

Motional’s CEO Karl Iagnemma said the announcement marked an important milestone between the two companies.

“Motional and Lyft pioneered collaboration between the ride-hail and driverless industries, and are now laying the foundation for large-scale deployments of driverless robotaxis,” said Iagnemma. “We look forward to beginning this next chapter in Las Vegas, and then quickly scaling to other markets across the Lyft network.”

Motional and Lyft are collaborating closely in the lead-up to the 2023 commercial launch, iterating on all aspects of the deployment and rider experience. This includes transporting passengers via Motional’s robotaxi starting in the second half of 2022. During this initial phase, riders will experience their end-to-end journey autonomously, including entering the vehicle, starting their ride and requesting support. This will allow Motional and Lyft to gain rider feedback, refine the interface to be as intuitive as possible, and more.

“Lyft’s powerful network is the ideal platform for deploying autonomous vehicles at scale,” said Lyft CEO Logan Green. “Motional’s driverless tech, combined with Lyft’s marketplace engine, brings us firmly into the self-driving future. We can’t wait for riders in Las Vegas to be the first to summon fully driverless cars on the Lyft platform.”

The Ioniq 5 robotaxi was developed through collaboration between Motional and Hyundai, is built to operate safely without a driver, and comes with enhanced safety and reliability features. It will be Motional’s second vehicle to operate without a driver on public roads.

Integrating driverless vehicles onto a ride-hailing network and effectively deploying them is an inherently complex process that requires deep collaboration between the robotaxi fleet provider Motional and the Lyft network. As operators of an established public self-driving service in Las Vegas since 2018, Motional and Lyft have over three years of experience optimising this service.

Las Vegas receives more than 40 million visitors annually and is home to some of the world’s largest entertainment, business and trade events. Motional’s robotaxis will provide transportation to these visitors and Las Vegas community members.

This announcement comes as a study reaffirms Americans’ interest in experiencing driverless technology. Over a third of respondents believe they will have taken a ride in a driverless vehicle within five years and more than half think AVs could have a positive impact on their community. Motional and Lyft believe multimodal ride-hail networks can provide improved and safer transportation options for millions of Americans, and look forward to making that future a reality.

The companies will share more details on the launch next year.

California-based Lyft was founded in 2012 and is one of the largest transportation networks in the USA and Canada.

Motional is a driverless technology company formed in 2020 as a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, formerly Delphi Automotive, an industrial technology company specialising in safety, electrification and vehicle connectivity. Its public robotaxi fleet has conducted over 100,000 public rides. Headquartered in Boston, Motional has operations in the USA and Asia.