Aptiv to continue testing robotaxi fleet in Vegas long after CES

LAS VEGAS -- Tech supplier Aptiv, which is ferrying CES visitors and participants up and down the Strip in a fleet of driverless vehicles, plans to keep its robotaxi fleet here after the show concludes.

Aptiv executives said they will station a permanent fleet of taxis in Las Vegas to continue beta-testing the vehicles and their ride-hailing software.

The software, provided by Lyft, allows travelers to hail a taxi by using their smartphone. Once in the vehicle, the passengers choose one of 30 destinations listed on a tablet.

An Aptiv engineer monitors the vehicle's performance and manually steers the vehicle in hotel driveways.

For the show, Aptiv equipped a fleet of modified BMW 5-series sedans with radar, cameras and lidar.

Jim Zizelman, Aptiv's vice president of engineering and program management, declined to confirm how many vehicles will be stationed in Las Vegas. He also did not confirm that Lyft would help manage the fleet after the CES show concludes.

But he hinted that both parties were pleased with the collaboration so far. "We have a partnership with Lyft, and it transcends Las Vegas," he said. "It's a broad partnership."

The Las Vegas fleet offers evidence that Aptiv's autonomous r&d is gaining momentum. The company has launched a small robotaxi fleet in Singapore and also has two robotaxis operating in Boston.

Those fleets will expand. Aptiv operates 60 autonomous vehicles worldwide and will grow to 150 vehicles by the end of the year.

Zizelman says Aptiv's technology should be ready for commercial use in 2019. The first such application likely will be a "first-mile, last-mile" taxi service for a municipality.

Will Lyft be involved in that project? Stay tuned.