 Hey everybody, this is Sean with The Verge. We're at CES 2018 and I'm about to do what else? Riding a self-driving car. Now self-driving cars are at CES every year, but this demo is gonna be different. This is not just a self-driving ride around a parking lot or around the convention center. This is the result of a partnership between Lyft and a company called Aptiv. And what they're gonna do is actually offer semi-autonomous car rides to people here at CES to one of 20 or more destinations across the week. So people who are attending the show can actually sign up and just in the Lyft app hail a self-driving car and take it to one of these destinations. And we're about to get a preview of what that whole experience looks like. So we just hopped in the car, tap confirm. It's showing us our route. I think we're going to Caesar's Palace. Smooth and simple, yeah, we're gonna go to Caesar's Palace. I didn't bring any cash with me. Oh, and I get to start, oh, I didn't know that there was gonna be so much control, all right. The driver's actually driving right now because there's regulations that say that they can't do it on private property here. One of the biggest challenges in Las Vegas with self-driving cars is that it doesn't have the same kind of lane lines that most roads have in America. It has these things called BOTS dots, which are just little sequences of dots on the roads that separate the lanes. And that's a bit of a challenge for self-driving systems which usually need lane markers to be able to know where the lanes are. Autonomous driving. Oop, there we go. And now we're in autonomous driving mode, according to the loud computer voice behind my head. So it's going well so far. We stopped beautifully at a red light and some passengers crossed in front with no problems and now we're going again. It's very smooth so far. Like many self-driving demos, it's a little bit boring if you forget about the technology and that. That's a little loud and not boring. It is giving us a lot of information about what's going on, whether it's here on the screen in the back seat or in the screen in the front seat, showing basically that the car knows what it's doing and trying to constantly prove that the car knows what it's doing to the people who are inside of it. The car we're in is a BMW 5 Series and the tech that's powering it is basically all the tech that this company, Aptiv, has provided. They've been working on self-driving technology on a few different models. This is just the one that they have here. And Aptiv was a good choice for Lyft because they've been here in different forms over the last couple years at CES, doing rides, demo rides in self-driving cars. And so they have a lot of data about the challenging environment in Las Vegas. In past experiences, usually you feel some drifting left and right in a lane as the car tries to sort of keep itself planted in the right position. And there's none of that, which is good because that kind of stuff, those little margins of error can make motion sickness come up in people. And when you're Lyft and you're a company that's trying to offer rides to people who are going out or back from a night on the town and you're wobbling them back and forth, that's probably a bad idea. Another thing that can really challenge some of these systems is harsh lighting, especially when there aren't solid lane lines. And we've got a lot of light and shadow and cars breaking in front of us and it's reading the scene pretty well. At least to the point that I'm not noticing the car reading it wrong. Look, this guy actually has to talk to his taxi driver. Hey, the taxi driver's giving the thumbs up. I don't think he's too worried about self-driving technology taking over his job. Lane change checking. Oh man. Changing lane. It's amazing how much a car like this makes you realize all the terrible and terrifying things that are happening around you. Like that car that was just sort of like hanging off the edge of a curb. Like, is he gonna pull out? He's not even paying attention to the road. Like that car that just crossed in front of us. It makes you so much more self-aware of how much danger we're constantly near when we're driving or riding in a car. So that's it, that completes our ride in a self-driving Lyft. We got to Caesar's Palace and back without losing any money, which is a pretty good feat in Las Vegas. Also no crashes. For more self-driving cars, weird self-flying helicopters and flying cars and all that stuff from CES 2018, make sure you go to youtube.com slash the verge, click subscribe and the verge.com slash CES. That's where everything is. Thanks for watching.
 Hey everybody, this is Sean with The Verge.
 We're at CES 2018 and I'm about to do what else?
 Riding a self-driving car.
 Now self-driving cars are at CES every year,
 but this demo is gonna be different.
 This is not just a self-driving ride around a parking lot
 or around the convention center.
 This is the result of a partnership between Lyft
 and a company called Aptiv.
 And what they're gonna do is actually offer
 semi-autonomous car rides to people here at CES
 to one of 20 or more destinations across the week.
 So people who are attending the show can actually sign up
 and just in the Lyft app hail a self-driving car
 and take it to one of these destinations.
 And we're about to get a preview
 of what that whole experience looks like.
 So we just hopped in the car, tap confirm.
 It's showing us our route.
 I think we're going to Caesar's Palace.
 Smooth and simple, yeah, we're gonna go to Caesar's Palace.
 I didn't bring any cash with me.
 Oh, and I get to start, oh, I didn't know
 that there was gonna be so much control, all right.
 The driver's actually driving right now
 because there's regulations that say
 that they can't do it on private property here.
 One of the biggest challenges in Las Vegas
 with self-driving cars is that it doesn't have
 the same kind of lane lines that most roads have in America.
 It has these things called BOTS dots,
 which are just little sequences of dots on the roads
 that separate the lanes.
 And that's a bit of a challenge for self-driving systems
 which usually need lane markers to be able to know
 where the lanes are.
 Autonomous driving.
 Oop, there we go.
 And now we're in autonomous driving mode,
 according to the loud computer voice behind my head.
 So it's going well so far.
 We stopped beautifully at a red light
 and some passengers crossed in front with no problems
 and now we're going again.
 It's very smooth so far.
 Like many self-driving demos, it's a little bit boring
 if you forget about the technology and that.
 That's a little loud and not boring.
 It is giving us a lot of information about what's going on,
 whether it's here on the screen in the back seat
 or in the screen in the front seat,
 showing basically that the car knows what it's doing
 and trying to constantly prove that the car knows
 what it's doing to the people who are inside of it.
 The car we're in is a BMW 5 Series
 and the tech that's powering it is basically
 all the tech that this company, Aptiv, has provided.
 They've been working on self-driving technology
 on a few different models.
 This is just the one that they have here.
 And Aptiv was a good choice for Lyft
 because they've been here in different forms
 over the last couple years at CES,
 doing rides, demo rides in self-driving cars.
 And so they have a lot of data
 about the challenging environment in Las Vegas.
 In past experiences, usually you feel some drifting
 left and right in a lane as the car tries
 to sort of keep itself planted in the right position.
 And there's none of that, which is good
 because that kind of stuff, those little margins of error
 can make motion sickness come up in people.
 And when you're Lyft and you're a company
 that's trying to offer rides to people
 who are going out or back from a night on the town
 and you're wobbling them back and forth,
 that's probably a bad idea.
 Another thing that can really challenge
 some of these systems is harsh lighting,
 especially when there aren't solid lane lines.
 And we've got a lot of light and shadow
 and cars breaking in front of us
 and it's reading the scene pretty well.
 At least to the point that I'm not noticing
 the car reading it wrong.
 Look, this guy actually has to talk to his taxi driver.
 Hey, the taxi driver's giving the thumbs up.
 I don't think he's too worried about
 self-driving technology taking over his job.
 Lane change checking.
 Oh man.
 Changing lane.
 It's amazing how much a car like this
 makes you realize all the terrible and terrifying things
 that are happening around you.
 Like that car that was just sort of like hanging
 off the edge of a curb.
 Like, is he gonna pull out?
 He's not even paying attention to the road.
 Like that car that just crossed in front of us.
 It makes you so much more self-aware
 of how much danger we're constantly near
 when we're driving or riding in a car.
 So that's it, that completes our ride
 in a self-driving Lyft.
 We got to Caesar's Palace and back without losing any money,
 which is a pretty good feat in Las Vegas.
 Also no crashes.
 For more self-driving cars,
 weird self-flying helicopters and flying cars
 and all that stuff from CES 2018,
 make sure you go to youtube.com slash the verge,
 click subscribe and the verge.com slash CES.
 That's where everything is.
 Thanks for watching.