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CES 2025: Vay expands tele-driving fleet in Las Vegas - Wissing on visit

(dpa) The remote-controlled cars from the Berlin start-up Vay were actually supposed to drive mainly in Hamburg. However, due to better conditions, the rental cars are primarily on the road in Las Vegas. Transport Minister Wissing is getting a firsthand impression on site.

As if by magic: A vehicle from the Berlin start-up Vay drives on a street in Las Vegas. The company wants to remotely deliver rental cars to customers - and pick them up again when users no longer need them. | Photo: Andrej Sokolow/dpa
As if by magic: A vehicle from the Berlin start-up Vay drives on a street in Las Vegas. The company wants to remotely deliver rental cars to customers - and pick them up again when users no longer need them. | Photo: Andrej Sokolow/dpa
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The Berlin start-up company Vay Technology will more than triple its fleet of remotely controlled rental cars in the USA this year from 30 to around 100 vehicles. This was announced by company co-founder and CEO Thomas von der Ohe on the occasion of the CES technology fair in Las Vegas. Vay Technology has been operating commercially in the desert city in the US state of Nevada for a year. Using a smartphone app, customers can order a Vay car like a taxi, which is then remotely controlled to them without a driver in the vehicle. Customers then take over the vehicle, a converted electric car from Kia, like a conventional rental car and drive it themselves. After completing the vehicle rental, passengers leave the car, which is then remotely controlled by Vay staff back to the depot.

 

Due to growing demand, Vay has now established a production facility with an area of approximately 800 square meters in Las Vegas. Additional cameras are mounted there in Vay's fleet, among other things. However, the vehicles do not use expensive lidar sensors, such as those found in Waymo's self-driving taxis in San Francisco.

More than Rental Cars and Carsharing

During a visit from Transport and Digital Minister Volker Wissing (independent), the Vay CEO promised to expand the business model of the Berlin company. In addition to the traditional rental car and carsharing business, Vay could also become a service for privately owned cars. With the help of a remote teleoperator, for instance, one could be safely driven home remotely after a party if alcohol was consumed at the party. 

In the near future, trucks would also be controlled from Vay's teleoperation center, announced von der Ohe. Therefore, as part of this year's expansion, Vay is also hiring new teleoperators for trucks. In Germany, Vay is primarily active in a field trial in Hamburg-Bergedorf. In contrast to the legal framework in Las Vegas, despite cooperative authorities in the Hanseatic city, it cannot be demonstrated that Vay operations are also possible on a large scale. According to the company, Vay has raised over 140 million euros from investors in recent years, making it one of the highest-rated start-ups in Europe in the field of autonomous driving or driverless mobility. The company currently employs around 150 people worldwide.

Translated automatically from German.
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