LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Las Vegas residents now have another affordable option to get to the Arts District and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
On Wednesday, the German remote driving company Vay launched their services in the valley. The company first announced they were coming to Las Vegas in July, hired their first teledriver in Las Vegas in October, and have been testing their driverless vehicles on valley roads for months.
Customers can use the Vay app to order an electric vehicle and a teledriver will remotely drive the vehicle to the user's location. The user can hop in the car, which takes them to their destination. Once they arrive, the teledriver remotely drives the car to the next user or parks it.
"After five years of developing our technology, we are bringing our vision to life in Las Vegas," Vay co-founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe said. "Our convenient, affordable and sustainable door-to-door mobility service aims to free cities from parked cars and make them more liveable and greener."
According to a press release, Vay users are only charged for the time they use the car. Starting out, they said users will be charged $0.30 a minute when driving and $0.03 per minute for stopovers.
When looking at similar rideshare services, Uber charges based on base prices, tolls and surcharges, booking fees, routes, and surge pricing. Lyft estimates that rides in the Las Vegas area start with a base fare of $1.61 and it goes up $0.23 per minute, $0.86 per mile, a $4.10 service fee, and can go up from there with airport fees.
Users can download the Vay app and/or learn more here.
At least two other driverless vehicle companies have been testing their services across the Las Vegas valley. Cruise started testing in September. However, General Motors suspended all of their driverless operations nationwide after regulators in California said their cars posed a danger to public safety. Halo Car also opened in downtown Las Vegas and allows users to test out their vehicles, which you can learn more about here.
