Local News

Actions

A look at self-driving cars driving around Las Vegas

Posted at 8:51 AM, Jan 10, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-10 12:02:24-05

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It's day 3 of CES. Among the thousands of products on display is a self-driving car.

If you've been driving through the resort corridor, chances are you have seen them.

Aptiv launched its fleet of self-driving cars through the Lyft network in the valley 9 months ago. We went to their booth at CES and got a closer look on how these cars can make the roads safer.

The self-driving cars look like your regular BMWs -- except they have dozens of sensors and cameras to get a "view" of the road ahead.

Aptiv's Las Vegas Managing Director, Abe Ghabra, says, "We think self driving cars would be about 10x safer than a normal driver... They can make decisions much faster than a human."

So we put it to the test.

Ghabra and I hopped in one of the cars. It drove us from the convention center to the strip. As with every other self-driving car ride, we had a safety driver up front.

"If a unique situation comes up that we haven't tested for yet, because we're still doing ongoing testing. They're ready to protect the passengers."

But the car did the majority of the work. Inside, there's a tablet showing the car moving along. Pay attention to this blue streak on the screen showing a driver cutting across lanes.

"So you see this car cut in in front of us very, very late and the car reacted like a safe driver would. Didn't slam on the breaks, didn't cause an accident."

The car doesn't turn when it detects a pedestrian is still on the crosswalk. It was also programmed to not make a right turn at a red light due to extra pedestrians on the road for CES. Leading to impatient drivers honking at us.

Aptiv, recently opened a technical center here in Las Vegas. More than half of its self-driving cars world-wide, 75 of them -- are stored and maintained here.

You can ride one of their self-driving cars thru the Lyft app if you are going around the resort corridor.