Las Vegas visitors will be able to use semi-autonomous electric vehicles for a tour starting in 2023

This is how it will work: Arcimoto's FUVs will be equipped with Faction's array of sensors' cameras and radars and its advanced Level 2+ driver assistance system, which handles tasks like lane assist and collision avoidance.. The vehicles will also have a tablet that features GoCar's GPS-guided tour of the Las Vegas strip (GoCar wants to eventually expand this tour to include Red Rock Canyon and the Hoover Dam). Vehicles will run from the GoCar depot in the Arts District to various hotels along the strip, a straight stretch of five miles with a speed limit of 30 miles per hour. Tourists will then collect the FUVs and drive them along the tour route at their own pace before returning themselves and the vehicles to their hotels, after which the FUVs will "drive themselves" back to the GoCar depot.

Faction's system can drive from A to B on a predetermined route and knows to stop if it encounters an abnormality or a task it cannot complete, such as an object in the way or an unguarded left turn.. But for trial calls, it relies on the telemarketer. The teleoperator will remotely adjust the line of trajectory that the vehicle follows to go around an object or enter a parking lot and give the order to execute.

Arcimoto's partnership with Faction and GoCar will originally involve around 20 vehicles starting in mid-2023, but the companies they hope to expand the offer to 290 vehicles additional in Las Vegas and other cities where GoCar operates, including San Francisco, San Diego and Barcelona.

Faction is a company that sees Tier 5 autonomy as a research project that is at least a decade before actual commercialization, and teleoperation as a necessary component to scale autonomous fleets today.. The startup is building its business by focusing on making "a right-sized tech stack with right-sized vehicles," meaning that Faction relies on a range of cameras, including a thermal camera and radar to achieve basic levels of autonomy, instead of adapting. a vehicle with expensive lidar and the latest computer systems.

"Right now, our current vehicle systems cost less than $35,000," said Ain McKendrick, CEO and founder of Faction. “We take about a $17,000 Arcimoto vehicle platform and put about $12,000 to $13,000 worth of technology. We've announced our partnership with Nvidia, but I don't want their latest and greatest liquid-cooled Omniverse that's going to need a trunk and a minivan to run. I want two generations back in their automotive-grade package that we can scale with."

McKendrick said the benefit of being a "second wave autonomy company" is that Faction isn't trying to solve all edge cases right now. In regards to its association with Arcimoto and GoCar, Faction only is trying to figure out replacing the human who would otherwise deliver those vehicles to clients' hotels.

“Our goal is to be profitable at the $2 per mile price posted on the door, not have the promise that the cost will come down 10 years from now”McKendrick said.

Aside from the nifty aspect of having a self-drive tour car to a client's hotel, GoCar is here for the potential cost savings for your business.

“We have thought about the self-service model in which people they can come and help themselves to a vehicle and leave, and we used to have multiple locations, but the economics of having these multiple locations is challenging because you don't know where the customer will be."said Nathan Withrington, founder of GoCar. “We might have 10 cars available at one location and the other has a 30-person waiting list. Then moving cars around the city and everything is a nightmare.

If customers can call a vehicle for them, where GoCar stores them becomes a lot less important. The company will gain visibility into their cars simply by being on the road, and it will be easier to clean and prep them when they are all accounted for.

GoCar has already been working with Arcimoto to offer FUVs to tourists. Withrington says FUVs are the first type of EV the company has put into its fleet that can actually handle the range you need, can cross bridges, and is road legal. Also, tourists love to drive them.

For Arcimoto, the partnership is an opportunity to expand his reach as a drive-thru offering, while building on his current partnership with Faction. The two began working together last year to build the D1., a semi-autonomous delivery vehicle based on the FUV, and has been pilot testing in the Bay Area since July, according to McKendrick.