Motional, the autonomous driving unit backed by Hyundai Motor Group, plans to roll out a fully driverless Level 4 robotaxi service in Las Vegas by the end of 2026, as it transitions to an end-to-end artificial intelligence-based motion planning system.
The company said it will begin supervised pilot operations using its IONIQ 5 robotaxi fleet in early 2026, before moving to fully driverless commercial services later that year. Motional said the system will comply with U.S. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and undergo independent safety validation, including assessments by TÜV SÜD.
Motional is moving away from traditional modular autonomous driving stacks—where perception, decision-making and control are handled separately—towards an integrated end-to-end (E2E) AI architecture. Under the new approach, a single machine-learning model plans vehicle motion holistically, a shift the company says supports faster updates and improved scalability for city-wide deployment.
“Motional does not place safety behind technological progress,” said Sarah Major. “We remain focused on accelerating our ability to scale the technology and operations in a sustainable way, from development through the commercialization stage,” she said.
The transition to E2E autonomy is supported by a phased safety validation framework, including large-scale simulation, repeated closed-course testing and gradual expansion on public roads. As E2E development advances, Motional said it is increasing the granularity of its internal performance metrics and test scenarios to ensure reliability at scale.
The robotaxi fleet is based on the Hyundai IONIQ 5, produced at the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore. Driving data collected during pilot operations is transmitted to remote servers to train large driving models and continuously refine system performance.
Within Hyundai Motor Group, Motional is coordinating closely with 42dot and the group’s Advanced Vehicle Platform Division. The collaboration links data, validation and platform engineering to accelerate deployment of E2E autonomous driving across future software-defined vehicles.
Following the planned Las Vegas launch, Motional said it intends to partner with a global ride-hailing platform to integrate robotaxi services into existing mobility networks and support expansion into additional markets.