Motional Autonomy Roulette on Uber in Las Vegas Field Report

Executive Summary

Special Field Correspondent David Moss rode in Motional’s Hyundai IONIQ 5 robotaxi in Las Vegas twice in late September to early October 2026, rating it the smoothest autonomous ride among Waymo, Zoox, and Motional in the city.

Motional’s robotaxis are built on a special line in Singapore and require no retrofit, featuring LIDAR, radar, and onboard compute in the trunk. Despite a dramatically improved experience compared to two earlier visits, persistent issues include loud compute noise, a safety supervisor in the front seat, and frequent cancellations requiring multiple attempts to secure a ride.

Motional is testing supervisor-free operation in small areas, and David believes fixing those three pain points would make it a truly great service.

Key Field Report Questions Answered

Field Report Topics & Timestamps

[0:00] Autonomy Roulette on Uber in Las Vegas

David Moss finally got paired with a Motional robotaxi on Uber after ten cancellations, picking up at the Resorts World Las Vegas robotaxi zone.

[1:15] Motional IONIQ 5 Walk Around

A 360 degree look at the Singapore built Hyundai IONIQ 5 with LiDAR all the way around, rear radars, a unique bumper, and the roof dome with the Motional logo.

[2:04] Safety Supervisor and Ride to Fremont Street

The safety supervisor welcomes the rider, explains they will stay silent while monitoring the systems, and the ride departs from the Strip to downtown.

[6:36] First Reaction and Compute Noise

David Moss calls it the smoothest ride of the three services in Las Vegas, notes the clean pedestrian stops, and flags the trunk mounted compute that is audible from the back seat.

[9:24] Return Ride to Resorts World

After roughly ten more attempts and a moved pickup spot, the second Motional arrives for the ride back to the Strip.

[12:29] Motional Outlook

A night and day turnaround from two rides earlier this year, with the safety supervisor, compute noise, and Uber dispatch as the items to watch.

Full Field Report Transcript

David Moss: It took a long time, but we got our emotional. Hello, ladies and gentlemen, David Moss here again, Road to Autonomy. We’ve had quite the pain point to get these babies. If you haven’t heard, this one is Hyundai’s AV company. So they custom make these on a special line in Singapore, ship them here to the States, no retrofit needed. They’re now in Las Vegas testing with ATD in Central Pennsylvania.

We take this baby, we drive it all over the geo-fence. Excuse me. At least ten cancellations so far in Ybor, having to play the autonomy roulette. Terrible time, but we, in fact, have got one now going to the Circa joining Abbott the LightShed pickup zones at Resorts World Las Vegas. Here’s our special Hyundai friend Pulling over right to the left side as normal. I’ll give you a quick 360-degree tour of the Hyundai.

A pretty cool guy. So Hyundai IONIQ 5, they make these in America, but this is special Singapore build. So you’ll, you’ll see radars in the back, this unique bumper, LIDAR all the way around, the big guy on the dome But, you know, definitely a lot different.

I like the Motional logo on there in the middle. Dirty guy, normally clean but. So we’re gonna wait on here so we’re, you can see the door handles are closed, and we’re gonna hit unlock, and there we go Hi there, good evening Hello. Welcome to the In Motion Taxi. My name is Zach, and I am just up here. I’m gonna be up front- Welcome. For your safety, please follow all rules as listed below. -monitoring the systems. I will remain silent during the duration of the trip because I’m monitoring. You are in control.

When you’re ready, press the start button to confirm. You have the absolute put your seatbelt on, press start. If you want me to pull over, cancel, let me know. Other than that, enjoy the show. Thank you for the intro. That’s very ex- that’s very exciting. Welcome. Enjoy. We’ll be arriving at your destination shortly. Please remain seated and buckled for your safety. You’ll be notified once we’ve safely parked. Ta-da. Thank you again- Thank you. for choosing Motional. Please do not forget anything. Thank you so much. Yes, you have a wonderful day. Remember to Stride, that was a great time.

By far the best experience. best driving out of the three, the Zooks, the Ojai, and now Emotional. But we’ll talk about some of the quirks. We’re going, we got a ride. Took us about another 10 try, 10 tries or so to get the ride. but we did get. We have got one, and we’re heading back but yeah, some of the My pickup spot has been moved. Let’s see. They See where it is supposed to be by the California there. So let’s see where the car comes.

Maybe it’ll come right where it dropped us off. We’re gonna jaywalk a bit because it’s close But beautiful time, Fremont Reno Avenue. Oh, it is gonna pick us up where we, where we dropped off. Looks like but the Motional we’ll, you know, probably time lapse most of it. They’ve had the great interaction, you know, with people crossing the street. It stopped for that. That was wonderful. but the compute, the compute is in the trunk. We’re gonna open the trunk in this ride. but it is so loud. It’s unbearingly loud, and the supervisor both. I can. I mean, and almost say the su- the compute noise is worse than the supervisor being there.

Now, you know me, not literally, I’m exaggerating a little bit, but it’s loud. It’s noticeable in the back seat. It’s not quiet, comfortable like the Ojai or Cybercab. But we’re waiting for the guy, coming in three minutes time. Oh, I got. Yes, I thought he was closer than that, but, well, we’re here, and we’ll come back to you when they’re arriving soon. So here’s our ride Come in here, the motion will open up the trunk.

Let’s open the app. un- unlock vehicle’s not there. Okay. Maybe that’ll work on the trunk. But we’ll try to find You can see what I’m talking about on my compute, and you can see how raised up that is for the truck Hi there. Good evening Welcome. For your safety, please close all doors and fasten your seatbelt. When you’re ready, press the Start Ride button to begin your trip. I’m pretty much just here for safety reasons, but car does drive by itself and I would be quiet for the ride. Great. Thank you We’ll be arriving at your destination shortly.

Please remain seated and buckled for your safety. You’ll be notified once we’ve safely parked Thank you. You did an incredible job. Remember to take all your belongings. So that’s Motional for you, Las Vegas on Uber. Sum it up, incredibly smooth ride. by far the best of the three between Waymo, Zoox, and Motional. The company’s currently operating late September, early October twenty twenty-six.

I think th- this is the fourth time I’ve been to Las Vegas this year. and Motional seemed to make a huge jump. I made two videos earlier this year. First one was with Out of Spec Studios with Kyle Conner. We rode in Motional, did not have a good experience. another time rode with Tesla Owner Silicon Valley. We, we did not have a good experience. I honestly took another ride, make a video. I had a– there was a very bad safety critical intervention. I never ended up posting the clip, just forgot to edit it. but it– this time, a huge leap forward, so I’m not sure if Motional is done. But they’ve, they’ve turned it around night and day. My experience to Fremont and, and back was awesome. You know, you still have the downsides.

Of course, like I mentioned, the supervisor, they’re gonna get rid of those. They’re testing in small areas, they’ve announced. and then the compute noise, they, they can’t really get rid of that in there, but, you know, not the– totally the end of the world, especially if you can be able to control your media and stuff. I think part of that is that it’s always a dead silent ride. You have no control over any of that currently. So if you could, if you could change those two, I think that’d make there. And then of course, you know, Uber Roulette. So all, all those supervisor compute Uber Roulette, you fix those, you have one great service. But you know, that’s, that’s the name of the game in, in rides in twenty twenty-six. But David Moss, The Road to Autonomy Special Field Correspondent. Thanks for tuning in.