Nevada is accelerating the release of robotic taxis. On Thursday, local time, the Nevada State Transportation Authority unanimously granted three permits for Tesla, Uber and Waymo to conduct commercial Robotaxi services in Clark County. The county covers Las Vegas, and three companies will be able to deploy up to 800 vehicles in the next 12 months.
Three companies have different sizes.
From the ceiling of the permit, Tesla received the highest number of authorizations, with a maximum of 5,000 Robotaxi. Waymo was granted 1,000 auto-driving vehicles. Uber was also granted 1,000 vehicles, but its vehicles will be operated in cooperation with Motional and Zoox, modern car subsidiaries. Zoox had previously held a licence to operate 100 Robotaxi.
However, the approved ceiling does not mean that it will all land in the short term. At the hearing, Tesla representatives stated that 5,000 of them had been capped and that the company was not expected to deploy to this size by the same time next year. The company would be satisfied if the fleet could be expanded to approximately 2,500 in the coming year, or slightly above that level.
Las Vegas competes for warmth.
Even if the three companies eventually completed only half of the licence ceiling, Clark County, especially in Las Vegas, could quickly become one of the most competitive regions in the United States of America. At that time, Tesla, Waymo, and Uber, which is involved in operations through Motional and Zoox, will compete for the same passengers.
This also means that auto-driving will move from the testing phase to commercial expansion locally. The article mentions that most of the auto-driving tests at this stage are concentrated in the Golden Triangle area between the airport and Las Vegas Avenue. Motional is also testing in downtown Town Square.
- Tesla permit ceiling: 5,000
- Waymo permit cap: 1000
- Uber Maximum Permit: 1000
Industry and employment disputes occur simultaneously
As deployment expanded, local industry organizations and taxi companies expressed opposition. Opponents believe that too much progress has been made by regulatory authorities, which could lead to oversupply in commercial transport markets and exacerbate road congestion in priority regions, particularly along the Golden Triangle.
The controversy surrounding Robotaxi also extends to the employment level. Proponents believed that such convoys would lead to new jobs such as maintenance, charging and cleaning, while opponents feared that the livelihoods of traditional taxi drivers and cyberdrivers would be directly affected.
Uber's position in this competition is relatively special. The company advocates a “mixed model” whereby manual drivers are present in the same network as Robotaxi, so that cities gradually introduce auto-driving vehicles at peak demand, rather than a one-time large-scale launch. This proposition is not entirely in the direction of Waymo, and reflects Uber ' s desire to retain the current power system until autopilot is fully mature.