A Motional robotaxi driving through downtown Las Vegas (Photo courtesy of Hyundai Motor Group).
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Hyundai Motor Group’s autonomous driving joint venture Motional plans to launch a fully driverless robotaxi service in Las Vegas later this year, marking a long-awaited commercial milestone after years of heavy investment and development.
At a media event held this month at its Las Vegas technical center, Motional said it would roll out a Level 4 autonomous ride-hailing service—under the standards of the Society of Automotive Engineers—following pilot operations earlier in the year. Level 4 vehicles can operate without human intervention in most driving conditions, representing a significant step toward fully autonomous mobility.
The service will be introduced in partnership with a global ride-hailing platform, with Las Vegas selected as the launch city due to its high demand for shared mobility and the abundance of real-world driving data.
Laura Major, Motional’s chief executive, described 2026 as “a pivotal year” for the company, saying it is prepared to scale operations to meet local demand and expand beyond the initial deployment.
Officials monitor vehicles at the control center of Motional’s Technical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Yonhap)
Motional, founded in 2020 by Hyundai Motor Group and the U.S. autonomous driving firm Aptiv, has absorbed nearly $3.4 billion in investment to date.
The project faced setbacks in recent years, including staffing reductions and delays, but Hyundai executives say the renewed push toward commercialization reflects a more disciplined and sustainable business strategy.
Technologically, Motional is pursuing a hybrid autonomous driving architecture that combines traditional rule-based systems with end-to-end artificial intelligence models.
The approach aims to preserve safety and regulatory transparency while improving the vehicle’s ability to handle rare or unpredictable “edge case” scenarios—an area where AI-driven systems, such as those used by Tesla, have shown advantages.
A fleet of robotaxi based on the Ioniq 5 is parked at Motional’s Technical Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Yonhap)
Motional also plans to unify its perception, prediction, and driving algorithms into a single large driving model, a move intended to further enhance system robustness.
Hyundai Motor Group expects these advances to feed into its broader autonomous driving roadmap, including software-defined vehicle development led by its mobility software arm 42dot.
Industry analysts see the Las Vegas launch as a critical validation point for Hyundai’s autonomous ambitions. If successful, the robotaxi rollout could accelerate the adoption of advanced self-driving technologies in Hyundai’s mass-market vehicles and support longer-term plans to introduce similar services in South Korea and other global markets.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
