Say hello to the future of driving.
Earlier today, driverless car startup Halo announced its new service in partnership with T-Mobile’s 5G network. The new service will be available in Las Vegas later this year as a fleet of remotely operated electric vehicles.
Even though the technology makes use of 5G remote drivers, it won’t be exclusively operating on T-Mobile’s 5G network. Halo says this will be the primary network they will use with its mid-, low-band 5G, and LTE network as a fallback. The driverless car company will also be relying on the other networks.
In a nutshell, Halo has a team of remote drivers that are equipped to operate the vehicles. Each remote driver will deliver the vehicle to an awaiting customer, who will be the one to drive the wheel to get to his destination. Once the trip has ended, the car moves on to another pick-up location.
Right now, Halo is operating test drives with their safety drivers in vehicles. This, however, won’t be included with paying customers.
This isn’t the first time Las Vegas has seen driverless vehicles. In fact, Lyft previously operated a driverless taxi service and Motional has tested autonomous rides without the presence of a backup driver behind the wheel. What makes Halo’s service different from these though is that they have an “Advanced Safe Stop” mechanism that automatically brings a car to a stop once danger has been detected. With this, Halo is hopeful that it will be able to achieve full autonomy.
Once it is ready to launch, Halo will operate these vehicles in “urban parts of the Las Vegas Valley.” There is no mention of how extensive the service will cover and whether it intends to expand the service to other parts of the city.
Source: T-Mobile