LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The German remote driving company Vay now has driverless vehicles on the streets of Las Vegas.
According to a press release, the company is the first one to drive cars without a person inside on public roads in Europe and the United States. In July, company officials said they were planning opening an office in the Arts District and make it their base "to explore the U.S. market for its remotely-driven door-to-door mobility service." Last month, the company hired their first remote driver in the United States and it was in Las Vegas.
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Vay has a Teledrive Academy that drivers must go through before they are cleared to operate vehicles on Las Vegas roads. Drivers sit in a teledrive station that includes a steering wheel, pedals and other vehicle controls. Car surroundings are reproduced through camera sensors and transmitted to the station. Road traffic sounds like emergency vehicles are transmitted via microphones to the teledriver's headphones. The company said the technology has been developed to meet automotive industry standards
"At Vay, we don't just say safety first. We live it," said co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Fabrizio Scelsi. "We implement safety and security by design, considering this as an essential part of our development process starting from day one."
A third-party company called TUV SUD tested and endorsed Vay's technology. According to Vay officials, Vay operates with "redundant mobile networks to ensure secure and continuous data transmission. In the event of possible but extremely rare network failures or emergencies, the vehicle will automatically put itself into a safe state within milliseconds by coming to a safe stop."
"Our experts reviewed the risk analyses and safety concepts at Vay for functional safety and cybersecurity and processed extensive documentation before testing all relevant driving functions in real and simulated scenarios on the road and on private ground," said Christian Gnandt, Global Head of Automated Driving at TUV SUD. "The focus was particularly on communication between the vehicle and the teledrive station. As a result, the functional safety and cybersecurity requirements relevant to this use case have been sufficiently met."
Vay officials said users will be able to order an electric vehicle using the Vay app and the teledriver will bring the car to the use by remotely driving it to the user's location. The user jumps into the car, which takes them to their destination. Once there, a teledriver remotely drives the car to the next user or parks it.
The service isn't available to users yet. However, company officials said interested early access users can subscribe to the waiting list.
