As I walked through the halls of CES with cars in them, I couldn't help but feel that many of the self-driving technologies on display were still in their concept phase. They seemed to lack the substance and practicality that I had hoped to see. However, the idea behind these technologies is to create a more efficient and autonomous driving experience, where passengers can turn around and face their friends without having to be sitting at the wheel.

One of the companies that caught my attention was BMW, which showed me its "I next" concept car. This futuristic vision of a next-gen car featured wide open spaces and touch-sensitive fabrics and surfaces for gestures, making it feel like you're in a moving room with lots of glass. The interior design was indeed unique and futuristic, but what struck me most was that it still seemed like a normal car without the actual self-driving tech in action.

Just as I had concluded that my experience at CES had been underwhelming, I received an email from Yandex, a Russian tech company, inviting me to check out their autonomous car. I was skeptical at first, having seen many autonomous concepts on display, but what they revealed about their fully autonomous driverless car hitting the streets of Las Vegas was exciting. They claimed that anyone could go for a ride in this self-driving taxi, and I couldn't resist the opportunity.

The car itself was a retrofitted Prius, equipped with radar lidar and camera arrays to map out its surroundings. What's more, it had been modified to use Tesla's autopilot technology, which made me feel slightly less nervous as a passenger in the backseat. As we navigated the streets of Las Vegas, there was no one in the driver's seat, which still felt a bit surreal.

To alleviate any concerns about safety, there was a safety engineer in the passenger seat with a kill switch next to him. This was reassuring, knowing that someone could intervene if needed. What struck me most during our 15-minute ride was how smoothly everything went, despite the fact that we were driving through real streets and interacting with other cars, pedestrians, traffic lights, turns, and speed changes.

The company had mapped a small area in Las Vegas beforehand, which meant that the car knew exactly where it was going. However, as we drove around, I realized that the technology wasn't limited to just following a predetermined route. It actually evaluated what was happening on the road at any given moment and made decisions based on that information.

The iPad Pro screens displayed real-time visualizations of the sensors' data, allowing me to see exactly how the car was processing information from its radar lidar, cameras, and other sources. I could see red paths indicating potential hazards or obstacles ahead, and green paths showing the intended route. It was truly fascinating to watch.

The reaction from other people on the road was also heartening, with many stopping to record the driverless car on their phones or staring in amazement at stoplights as they realized what was happening. Even the Las Vegas cops seemed amused by the experience, which added to my overall impression that this technology is finally starting to come into its own.

As I looked back on our time in the self-driving taxi, I couldn't help but feel a sense of optimism for the future of self-driving tech. It may not have been the futuristic interior design that everyone else was raving about, but the underlying technology was undeniably impressive. The ability to seamlessly integrate with real-world driving conditions and make decisions based on that data was truly revolutionary.

As I left CES, I couldn't help but wonder if this is the kind of thing we'll see more of in the future. Whether it's taxis like the one I rode in or personal vehicles equipped with similar technology, the potential for autonomous driving to transform our daily lives is undeniable. And as for whether you'd let yourself get driven in a driverless taxi like this? That's definitely something worth considering – perhaps even sharing your own experiences and thoughts with others who might be interested.

For those looking to learn more about self-driving tech, I've included some links below that provide further information on the company and its technology. Who knows what the future holds for autonomous driving?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennodes up chasm kabhi HD here still in Las Vegas and I've seen a lot of self-driving tech so far here at CES like if you walk through any of the halls with cars in them there's tons of like open room concepts and things like that but they feel kind of useless you know like as long as they're still on a concept phase they don't really feel really yet the idea is we're building the interiors of these cars now for this autonomous future where you don't have to be sitting at the wheel so you can turn around face your friends you kind of feel like you're in a moving room lots of glass it's very different and I've seen a lot of that all over the show floor really far out stuff crazy shapes huge chunks of glass and stuff built for autonomy actually BMW I think had a sort of a happy medium they showed me what they called the I next which is sort of a really futuristic vision of a next-gen car but not too far in the future so it has these wide open spaces and touch sensitive fabrics and surfaces for gestures but it still sort of seems like a normal car but still without the actual self-driving tech in action as just kind of half the story so then I got an email from a company called Yandex you may know them as a Russian tech company and they said hey come check out our autonomous car at CES I'm kind of thinking okay well I've seen a lot of autonomous concepts and things like that how could this be much different but then they said listen we have a fully autonomous driverless car hitting the streets of Las Vegas with all the other regular cars right now you can go for a ride you in so I super in let's do it so the car itself is a retrofitted Prius on top is radar lidar and camera array for the car to map out its surroundings I think I saw one who's used the autopilot from a Tesla it helps me to not be as nervous in the backseat but it's still crazy not having anyone in the driver's seat at all as the car navigates the streets there's a safety engineer in the passenger seat which had a kill switch next to him for if anything happened to go wrong or it needed to be interrupted but we did about a 15 minute loop around real streets real drivers real people and everything went smoothly and it was kind of still trippy the whole time this this really feels like the future I gotta say it might not be this crazy soft driving interior that everyone else is talking about but this tech part is cool to me the details are that this is a small area in Las Vegas that was already mapped by this company so it was a predetermined route and the car knew where it was gonna go but everything else Road conditions the other cars the pedestrians the traffic lights the turns speed changes all of that was decisions made by the car but all that makes sense for a taxi I mean you map the town or city you want to be in you have predetermined routes for pick-up and drop-off and then the taxis are driverless and they just go from there and the even cooler nerdier part is these iPad pros you're seeing that's a visualization of what the sensors on top of the car are seeing in real time so the radar lidar and cameras are all combining to identify what is other cars on the road what's pedestrians what is a stationary object and seeing things up to 250 meters away in every direction so things six seven cars away we're on the iPad that I couldn't even see in real life out the windows so there are some red paths and when we start driving you're gonna see some green paths and basically what I'm seeing here is it's evaluating what's currently happening on the road and what's about to happen red paths green paths good and it takes the green path and has a predetermined destination we're on a left turning lane so you can see way up ahead where it wants to go and it's just gonna fall out where I can't based on the cars around us you can't really merge right now so those paths are red it has a green path and it has a bunch of other possible paths to take if it wants to switch it up but right now it's all green and the best part is the reaction from other people on the road was pretty great there's people pulling out their phones to record the driverless car people kind of stare a little bit at stoplights when they realize what's going on and apparently Las Vegas cops think it's pretty funny too but overall the 15 minutes we've spent in this car were a lot of fun I learned a lot just looking at these iPads and what they were seeing as the car drove around and this gave me a sort of an optimism for the future of self-driving tech so that's pretty much it figured I would share my experience would you let yourself get driven in a driverless taxi like this maybe share this video with other people you think would be interested and I'll leave some links below with some more information so you can look it up if you want to see that too either way thanks for watching see you guys next one peace\n"