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Vay launches ‘driverless’ service in U.S., but there’s a catch

Credit: Vay

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Vay, a German startup, has launched a “driverless” service in the United States, but there’s a catch.

Vay announced on Wednesday that its service has already launched in Las Vegas, Nevada, but it is not completely free of human control. Instead, Vay uses what it calls “teledriving,” which enables people to hail vehicles for rides in vehicles controlled by people who operate the car in a remote space.

The car is delivered to the person who called for it without a driver. Then, the person who called for the car can drive it to their destination.

When the person who called for the ride is done with the trip, they can choose in the Vay app to let one of the teledrivers take over and then park the car. The teledriver then drives the car back to its original location.

“We develop our teledrive technology in order to fulfill applicable safety requirements and to provide customers a reliable mobility service,” Vay’s CEO and co-founder Thomas von der Ohe told CNBC.

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It has already performed tests on public roads in Europe and the U.S. with remote drivers. It is still trying to work through regulatory hurdles in both markets.

Today, Vay launched its driverless mobility service in Las Vegas, and it’s a major milestone in the development of the tech, which has gone on for five years.

von der Ohe said:

“After five years of developing our technology, we are bringing our vision to life in Las Vegas. Our convenient, affordable, and sustainable door-to-door mobility service aims to free cities from parked cars and make them more liveable and greener.”

It launched early access rides in Las Vegas in November, but now it is open to anyone within the UNLV and Arts District area.

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Pricing Strategy

The service is operated on a “per-minute rental” pricing strategy. Users only pay for the time they use the car. Initially, Vay is charging $0.30 per minute and $0.03 per minute for stopovers.

A Different Approach from Tesla

Tesla has looked to launch a Robotaxi service for several years, and while it hasn’t gotten there quite yet, it has not veered away from its goal of offering a completely driverless ride-hailing platform.

Vay is using remote drivers to get cars to their customer and back to its original location. Those who call the car for a ride drive the vehicle themselves to their destination. It takes the struggle of parking out of the equation.

Early-access users said the pricing was an advantage, and it was nice to be able to travel at their own pace.

Vay’s strategy takes the freedom and independence of having a ride without a driver and couples it with the safety and certainty of a real-world operator. While autonomous driving is still in its early stages, there are certainly risks, as we saw with Cruise in its limited operation in San Francisco in 2023.

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I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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‘Tesla tax’ could be no more in United Kingdom

A tax on vehicles in the United Kingdom is set to be adjusted after automakers have blamed it for struggling sales.

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Credit: Tesla

A controversial tax set on cars that are above the £40,000 price threshold in the United Kingdom could be abandoned, as the “Tesla Tax,” as it is commonly referred to, is taking the blame for poor EV sales.

The tax has been imposed on ICE vehicles since 2017, but on April 1, 2025, the “Expensive Car Supplement,” or ECS, was applied to new EVs sold after that date, a move that was initiated in an act of fairness.

Tesla best-rated car brand in UK, beats Toyota in reliability: survey

However, the tax is now being blamed for sluggish EV sales across various parts of Europe. In the UK, manufacturers are blaming the tax for making it more difficult to reach sales quantities for binding green car sales targets. Missing these sales goals could cost manufacturers millions or even billions of dollars.

A leaked letter seen by This Is Money and MailOnline shows the UK is ready to reconsider the tax, which is combined with a Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) on cars in the second year after they are registered.

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The tax could be applied to vehicles at a higher price point, or it could be eliminated altogether. However, Ben Maguire, a Lib Dem MP for one region in the UK, said:

“We will consider raising the threshold for zero-emission cars only at a future fiscal event to make it easier to buy electric cars.”

Several companies said an adjustment to the tax would be “a move in the right direction,” and one of the major new car retailers in the UK said sales targets are “unrealistic” with the tax currently set at where it is.

UK reconsiders EV sales targets, listening to automakers

Even still, without the adjustment, retailers are concerned that EVs are not at a spot where consumers truly can justify them as a purchase. One company said “cost, lack of incentives, and lack of a public charging infrastructure” are the biggest bottlenecks in the adoption of EVs.

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Tesla’s new Model S and X spotted, but they leave a lot to be desired

The Model S and Model X testing mules spotted by The Kilowatts have few minor visual changes.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has been hinting for a few months now that the flagship Model S and Model X would be getting some attention in 2025 as the vehicles continue to be sold in extremely low volumes.

Both models seem to be under the knife, especially as their newest versions were spotted in California earlier this week.

However, images of the vehicles seem to show that Tesla is not planning a major overhaul, which begs the question: why even do it in the first place?

Tesla makes a decision on the future of its flagship Model S and Model X

The Model S and Model X are grouped with the Cybertruck in Tesla’s quarterly delivery releases, and Q1 saw just 12,881 units of the three cars delivered. The Cybertruck likely made up the majority of this number, as some outlets reported around 6,400 deliveries of the all-electric pickup in Q1.

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This is unconfirmed.

The Model S and Model X have stuck around for “sentimental reasons,” according to CEO Elon Musk, who said back in 2021:

“I mean, they’re very expensive, made in low volume. To be totally frank, we’re continuing to make them more for sentimental reasons than anything else. They’re really of minor importance to the future.”

However, the cars seem to be in need of a serious refresh. As Tesla changed up the exterior aesthetic on both the Model 3 and Model Y, recent images captured of the Model X by The Kilowatts seem to show this is not the strategy with the Model X or Model S:

As we can see, the overall aesthetic of the X, if this is what Tesla plans to release, has literally no changes from a purely visual standpoint. There is the addition of the front bumper camera, which was first implemented on the Cybercab unveiled in October 2024, and then on the new Model Y this year.

There are some new 20″ wheels, and the interior has been fitted with ambient lighting.

The Model S looked to be relatively the same, other than these few hardware changes, including a rear diffuser on this Plaid that was spotted:

While these changes are welcome and should be beneficial, they don’t seem like they will encourage major sales growth, which might be something Tesla is okay with.

Admitting the two cars are low volume and not contributors to the company’s long-term goals, Musk is likely willing to just upgrade things to make these more compatible and better functioning with the Full Self-Driving suite.

Earlier this year, VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy said the S and X were not going anywhere and would get “some love” before the end of 2025:

Just give it a minute. We’ll get there. The upgrade a couple of years ago was bigger than most people thought in terms of architecture and structure of the car got a lot better, too. But, we’ll give it some love later this year and make sure it gets a little bit…you know, with the stuff we’ve been putting in 3 and Y. Obviously, with 3 and Y, the higher volume stuff, you’ve gotta focus there.”

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It seems these strategies have held true — the S and X appear to be getting what the 3 and Y got with the ambient lighting and front bumper camera (at least on the Model Y).

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Tesla set for ‘golden age of autonomous’ as Robotaxi nears, ‘dark chapter’ ends: Wedbush

Tesla is set to win big from the launch of the Robotaxi platform, Wedbush’s Dan Ives said.

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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is set to kick off its own “golden age of autonomous growth” as its Robotaxi platform nears launch and a “dark chapter” for the company has evidently come to a close, according to Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.

Ives has jostled his price target on Tesla shares a few times already this year, usually switching things up as the market sways and the company’s near-term outlook changes. His price target on Tesla has gone from $550 to $315 to $350 back to $500 this year, with the newest adjustment coming from a note released early on Friday.

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As CEO Elon Musk has essentially started to dwindle down his commitment to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) altogether, Ives believes that Tesla’s “dark chapter” has come to a close:

“First lets address the elephant in the room…2025 started off as a dark chapter for Musk and Tesla as Elon’s role in the Trump Administration and DOGE created a life of its own which created brand damage and a black cloud over the story….but importantly those days are in the rear-view mirror as we are now seeing a recommitted Musk leading Tesla as CEO into this autonomous and robotics future ahead with his days in the White House now essentially over.”

Ives believes Tesla’s launch of Robotaxi should be the company’s way to unlock at least $1 trillion in value alone, especially as the Trump White House will fast-track the key initiatives the automaker needs to get things moving in the right direction:

“The $1 trillion of AI valuation will start to get unlocked in the Tesla story and we believe the march to a $2 trillion valuation for TSLA over the next 12 to 18 months has now begun in our view with FSD and autonomous penetration of Tesla’s installed base and the acceleration of Cybercab in the US representing the golden goose.”

There are some concerns moving forward, but none of which relate to the AI/autonomous play that Ives primarily focuses on within the Friday note. Instead, they are related to demand in both Europe and Asia, as Ives said, “there is still wood to chop to turn around Model Y growth” in both of those markets.

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Nevertheless, the big focus for Ives is evidently the launch of Robotaxi and the potential of the entire autonomous division that Tesla plans to offer as a ride-sharing service in the coming months. Ives also believes a 50 percent or more penetration of Full Self-Driving could totally transform the financial model and margins of Tesla moving ahead.

Aware of the setbacks Tesla could encounter, Ives still believes that Tesla will establish itself as “the true autonomous winner over” and that investors will recognize the AI vision the company has been so bullish on.

Ives pushed his price target to $500. Tesla shares are down just under 1% at the time of publication. They are trading at $337.88 at 11:45 on the East Coast.

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