Earlier this week, Tesla received regulatory approval to deploy ten robotaxis along the Las Vegas Strip. As it turns out, this was merely an interim permit, as Nevada has since fully approved Tesla’s June application for 5,000 units – with only a few days’ delay.
According to TechCrunch, the Nevada Transportation Authority unanimously issued three commercial robotaxi service permits to Tesla, Uber, and Waymo on Thursday. The permits cover Clark County, with Las Vegas as its glittering centre. Together, these permits will allow the deployment of up to 8,000 robotaxis across the county within the next twelve months.
While Tesla’s permit allows for up to 5,000 units, TechCrunch states that Uber and Waymo each received approval for up to 1,000 units. Why the total is referred to as up to 8,000 vehicles rather than 7,000 is not explained in the article. What is clear, however, is that provider Zoox already holds a permit in Nevada to operate a network of 100 autonomous vehicles. These operators will soon face significant competition.
However, industry experts doubt that Tesla, Uber, and Waymo will fully utilise their permits. The figures quoted are likely upper limits. Eric Early, Chief Engineer for Tesla’s Cybercab project, told TechCrunch: “I don’t think we’ll be able to deploy 5,000 vehicles by this time next year, and that’s not due to the technology. … I think we’d be extremely happy and satisfied if we could reach 2,500 next year, maybe even a little more. I don’t think we’ll be in a position by this time next year to deploy 5,000 vehicles, and it’s not [because of] the technology. … I think we would be extremely happy and satisfied if we could get ourselves up to 2,500, maybe a bit higher than that in the next year.”
