Driverless Cars Take Over the Streets of Vegas

Theeeeeey're heeeeere.  Those driverless cars are no longer a thing of the future.  Vegas is set to debut the concept this week courtesy of the German startup Vay.  Forgive us for feeling a bit apprehensive with a startup being behind this.

Here the term "driverless" we will throw in quotes as there is a real human helping to operate the vehicle remotely from a physical steering station miles away.  That's comforting...maybe.

You won't find them on the Strip or near any of the casinos....YET.

The service is currently available around the University of Nevada Las Vegas and the city's arts district renting out electric cars by the minute.

From DW:

The company outfits its vehicles with cameras, GPS, radar, ultrasound and a slew of other sensors to reproduce car surroundings, including traffic sounds, at the purpose-built "teledrive" station, which is equipped with a steering wheel, pedals, monitors and other controls.

CEO Thomas von der Ohe told Reuters that the startup sees a "massive use case" for remote driving functions.  No more DWIs either!

"If every vehicle drives off the production line equipped with teledriving... you can have an on-demand tele-valet that parks your car for you," said von der Ohe, "and then teledrives you home in your own car if you have a few glasses to drink."

Epic Fail?

Stay off the sidewalks!  Literally, stay off the sidewalks.

Prior attempts to introduce driverless vehicles into the real world have been met with some mixed results.

In October, a pedestrian in downtown San Francisco was found critically injured and trapped underneath a driverless vehicle operated by Cruise, a San Francisco-based self-driving car company and subsidiary of General Motors (GM).

Video shown to CNN by Cruise shows the autonomous vehicle was a secondary car in the collision and the pedestrian was crossing the intersection when cars had the right of way.

To be fair, it was a human driven car that initially caused the accident.

“A human-driven vehicle struck a pedestrian while traveling in the lane immediately to the left of a Cruise AV,” said Cruise spokesperson Navideh Forghani in a statement to CNN. “The initial impact was severe and launched the pedestrian directly in front of the AV. The AV then braked aggressively to minimize the impact.” Forghani says the driver of the other vehicle fled the scene.

From CNN:

"When the pedestrian was hit by the green car, she landed on the hood of the car, flipped over the roof and rolled off the right side of the car. She slammed onto the pavement and landed right in front of the AV. The AV brakes engaged as soon as she hit the pavement and then stopped on top of her."

The incident, however, resulted in a ban on driverless vehicles by California regulators

- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com