Halo to Launch 5G-powered Remotely Operated Car Service in Las Vegas
Halo, Las Vegas-based startup, and T-Mobile, a telecom giant, are teaming up to launch a 5G-powered driverless electric car service in Las Vegas, later this year.
From the past few years, 5G technology has generated a lot of hype owing to its potential to power driverless cars using a remote operator. Halo and T-Mobile are aiming to change that.
The services will start with five vehicles and work by connecting users of vehicles to Halo’s pilot fleet via an app.
When a user orders a vehicle on the app; a car will be driven up to the waiting customer by a remote operator.
Once the car reaches the users, they can get behind the steering wheel and operate the vehicle as a normal car for the duration of their trip.
After the trip is complete, the remote operator will take back over the car and drive it to the next customer.
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Halo is significantly different from other Robotaxi service-providing companies including Waymo or Cruise. They are developing a fully autonomous technology that aims to completely remove the human from behind the wheels.
Instead, Halo vehicles will equip their cars with nine cameras, radars, and ultrasonics as backup (no lidar). The car will be then connect via T-Mobile’s Ultra-Capacity mid-band 5G network to remote operators.
Halo CEO Anand Nandakumar said that the service will be able to run on LTE as needed and extended range low-band 5G network.
In a press release, Halo said that their remotely controlled vehicles will be equipped with an algorithm that “learns in the background while humans control the vehicle, building a unique feedback loop to achieve Level 3 capabilities over time.”
This suggests that the company is planning to go fully-autonomy soon.
In the release, Nandakumar said, “Full autonomy is a massive challenge from both a technical and social-trust perspective that won’t be solved for years to come.”
“But Halo has been designed to address these challenges by building automation over time starting with a solution that consumers will feel comfortable using today.”
The vehicles will be equipped with an advanced safe stop mechanism. So, if a potential safety hazard is detected the cars will immediately come to a stop.