Autonomous vehicle tech company Halo has partnered with telecom operators, T-Mobile to leverage its 5G network technology to operate Halo’s fleet of remotely operated EVs across Las Vegas. The cars, however, won’t be solely operating on T-Mobile 5G but will also be relying on other networks. The advent of 5G technology has revolutionized almost every industry across the globe, especially its efficiency to power driverless cars that are controlled remotely.
Initially, the service that will launch later this year will include five vehicles at first and will connect users to Halo’s pilot fleet of vehicles through an app. After the user orders a vehicle, remote operator will drive it to the customer waiting for the car. After the car is delivered, users can drive the vehicle as normal for the entire duration of the trip. On the completion of trip, remote operator will take control of the vehicle and drive it back to the next customer. Halo deviates from other autonomous driving companies such as Waymo and Cruise, in that instead of a full self-driving stack technology, Halo will be integrating nine cameras, radars, and ultrasonics and will connect to remote operators via the midband 5G network of T-Mobile. In a press release, Halo announced its cars would be equipped with algorithms that will enable the car to understand in the background while humans control and drive the vehicles leading to a feedback loop that will allow it to achieve Level 3 capabilities over the course of time. It also announced its vehicles will be equipped with “Advanced Safe Stop” mechanism that will help the cars to come to a full stop when a potential hazard is detected.
In 2020, Halo joined the 5G Open Innovation Lab that was co-founded by telecom major T-Mobile which gave the startup access to the telecom major’s engineers and midspectrum network. Halo says it will start the pilot program in Las Vegas Valley’s urban areas at launch and will later expand to more areas of the city.
