Strolling through a parking lot in Las Vegas, you might encounter a company poised to revolutionize autonomous driving. However, many such ventures struggle to survive their formative years and achieve lasting success.
This year’s CES 2026 served as a platform for Hyundai and Motional to unveil their partnership, announcing plans to launch a driverless service in Las Vegas later this year.
The journey hasn’t been straightforward; Motional, previously a joint venture with automotive tech firm Aptiv, paused operations in 2024 to reassess after six years of refining its autonomous technology.
“We've provided 130,000 rides through the Lyft and Uber networks, including food deliveries via Uber Eats, and have driven over two million autonomous miles without any at-fault incidents,” stated Laura Major, Motional's CEO, at the company’s Las Vegas headquarters.
“The AI landscape has evolved significantly in recent years, prompting us to focus on accelerating our advanced AI technology,” she added.
Motional’s CEO noted that during this hiatus, the company transitioned from traditional robotic solutions, which are often costly and time-consuming, to utilizing neural networks, large language models, and vision-language-action models. This shift aims to enhance adaptability to new cities and environments, ultimately reducing costs and expediting deployment.
Hyundai increased its stake in Motional in 2020, becoming the majority owner and committing additional resources to supply its purpose-built Ioniq 5 Robotaxi for testing and deployment.
With these developments, Motional feels prepared to compete with industry giants like Waymo, Tesla, and Zoox, which also operate autonomous vehicles in Las Vegas.
Purpose-built Johnny Cab
Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 robotaxi is produced at a state-of-the-art smart factory in Singapore, where robotic Spot dogs from Boston Dynamics oversee quality control. Unlike many competitors, this vehicle, equipped with an extensive sensor and Lidar suite, is manufactured on a large scale.
Waymo plans to integrate the Ioniq 5 into its fleet to replace aging Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, but Motional will be the first to deploy Hyundai’s award-winning electric vehicle on the streets.
Similar to standard passenger cars, the fully autonomous Ioniq 5 features a steering wheel and seating for four passengers. Notable differences include automatically opening and closing doors, screens for rear passengers to monitor their journey, and buttons throughout the cabin and exterior for contacting a call center if assistance is needed.
My test drive began in a quiet business district near Harry Reid International Airport. Despite a safety operator in the driver’s seat, I was encouraged to initiate the journey as a customer would. I tapped the screen to start, and the doors closed silently.
The route to the Las Vegas strip was straightforward, but the Motional Ioniq 5 quickly adapted, merging smoothly and maintaining traffic speed, even executing a decisive maneuver to enter the correct lane for a right turn.
Impressively, the vehicle navigated the notoriously busy Vegas strip with ease, even pulling into a hotel valet parking lot to demonstrate its capabilities.
Previously, during early rides with Lyft, a safety driver would intervene at this point to assist with navigation through complex areas. This time, however, the car operated independently, allowing other vehicles to merge and stopping safely for pedestrians and bellhops. The braking was smooth, avoiding any abrupt movements.
While the journey was nearly flawless, there was one instance where the safety operator had to take control. On the return trip to Motional’s headquarters, another vehicle cut in front of us at a traffic light, prompting the robotaxi to attempt to pass it on the right, which would have forced us into a lane designated for right turns only. The safety driver intervened briefly to prevent this.
In such situations, Motional maintains a bustling operations room at its Vegas HQ, allowing teleoperators to make real-time decisions and communicate with the vehicle.
Adam Griffin, Vice President of Operations and Head of Safety at Motional, noted that the frequency of such interventions is decreasing.
AI Cranks Up the Pace
Laura Major emphasized that AI has significantly improved the company’s ability to handle challenging scenarios in recent years.
Part of this progress involves the development of an “Omni Tag” process, which employs large language models and vision-language models to analyze extensive video footage captured by Motional’s fleet.
“We can identify critical scenarios for training and enhance our performance in specialized tasks,” Major explained. For instance, when encountering a rickshaw for the first time, the AI can now access training examples to improve its response.
“The Omni Tag process allows us to automate what previously required large teams of data scientists to curate valuable datasets. What once took months can now be accomplished in hours or minutes,” Major added.
This unique combination of classical robotics expertise and advanced AI strategies positions Motional favorably in the expanding robotaxi market.
However, the company aims to go beyond merely launching a fleet of autonomous taxis with an unnamed ride-hailing partner. Major revealed that the ultimate goal is to refine this technology for broader consumer use in passenger vehicles.
Given that Hyundai currently lacks autonomous driving technology comparable to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving or Ford’s BlueCruise Level 2 systems, the substantial investment in Motional could soon yield significant returns, potentially enabling a leap to Level 4 autonomy.