LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Las Vegas is known for many things; from its bold, bright gaming industry, to its shining professional sports teams, to its sterling reputation for hospitality at its finest. Now the Valley is fast becoming a hub of technological innovation.
It’s that trend towards high-tech that attracted a German company to test drive its new fleet of autonomous cars right here in the enterainment capitol of the world.
“Vay” wants to shakeup the rideshare game by taking drivers out of the seat with driverless electric vehicles that come to you with the tap of an app.
“All right, let’s do it.”
No one behind the wheel, only the voice of a remote driver, operating the car from Vay’s Las Vegas headquarters.
“What we want to do with this service is to offer a complete new mobility service,” says Vay founder and CEO, Thomas von der Ohe.
“We became the first company to drive on public streets with no person inside in Germany.”
Now von der Ohe is bringing that autonomous teledriving to Las Vegas.
“Open the Vay, click a button and then an electric car comes to you fully driverless, because a remote driver drives it to you,” von der Ohe tells FOX5.
Antonella Siracusa-Rosa is one of those drivers. She says the setup at the teledriver center does a good job of making her feel like she’s actually in the driver’s seat – with some exceptions.
“The only difference I feel, is not having that feedback, but we do a lot of things on here to simulate that,” she says.
Whether it’s aggressive, distracted, or speeding drivers, Siracusa-Rosa tells us, Vay’s long training program has helped her prepare for it all.
“We drive defensively and pre-emptively, so we kinda try to keep a bigger view on what’s actually going on around us to avoid those kinds of scenarios.”
As for pricing, van der Ohe says that will be determined during the company’s testing phase. He does say it will fares will be lower than Uber.
“The main reason for that is because obviously you drive yourself, so as your driving we don’t have to pay a driver.”
Vay’s currently recruiting drivers for its testing phase. If you’re interersted in learning more, or signing up, you can visit Vay’s website.
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