Las Vegas visitors could soon share the roads with driverless taxis after the Nevada Transportation Authority approved commercial robotaxi permits for Tesla, Uber, and Waymo in Clark County, which includes the city of Las Vegas. PCMag reports that the newly approved autonomous vehicles are expected to hit the road over the next 12 months.
PCMag, citing TechCrunch, reports that Tesla's permit is the largest of the three, allowing up to 5,000 robotaxi vehicles from the brand. The permit allows any use across Clark County and extends to the entire state of Nevada if Tesla notifies the commission of expansion plans in advance.
Speaking during the NTA's general session meeting, where the approval was granted, Tesla's robotaxi engineering lead, Eric Early, said the 5,000 figure "has always been a ceiling for us." He added that the company "would be extremely happy and satisfied" if it could get up to 2,500 vehicles, maybe a bit higher than that, in the next year.
Waymo secured approval for 1,000 autonomous vehicles over the next year, according to PCMag, building on the permission Nevada first granted it to operate fully autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas in July. Uber also announced approval for 1,000 robotaxis across Clark County, and its global head of autonomous mobility and delivery, Sarfraz Maredia, said the company would operate the vehicles in partnership with Amazon's Zoox service and Hyundai's Motional subsidiary.
Reports from Mezha and Pluang add that Uber is developing a hybrid model in which human drivers and robotaxis operate within the same ride-hailing service, easing integration and helping manage demand.
PCMag cautions that reaching the top number of vehicles statewide will be difficult for each of these brands, so it expects a slower rollout than the approval figures first suggest.
