LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A new car rental company is trying something a little different by delivering cars to customers by using “remote pilots,” or in other words, driverless.
The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles gave approval to the Las Vegas-based Halo.car company to do a beta test of its vehicle delivery service in the Downtown Fremont and Arts District area starting this week. All of Halo’s cars are electric and the beta program will run throughout the summer.
According to a news release from Halo, it wants “Las Vegas residents and visitors to try the delivery service and provide feedback.”
During the testing period, the vehicle deliveries will be accompanied by a Halo support operator to make sure everything goes as it should. The company expects to launch commercially later this year and the support operators will be phased out at that time for fully driverless dropoffs.
Halo has been testing its remote pilot technology on public roads in Las Vegas since February 2021.
“Self-driving technologies have not yet achieved the level of safety necessary for a fully driverless reality – that’s a decade away, if not more,” said Halo CEO Anand Nandakumar. “Halo’s human-operated remote pilot technology is trusted more by consumers, and it’s available now, bringing the convenience and savings of ‘driverless’ vehicles to market sooner.”
Halo plans to expand across the U.S. and have a fleet of more than 1,000 vehicles within two years.
“Our ultimate mission is to move the entire planet to electric cars and eliminate the dependence on fossil fuels.”
