Episode 65 | The Vegas Experience

Chris Anderson, President, Sala Consulting joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the Vegas Experience and why mobility companies can offer unique immersive autonomous vehicle experiences only in Vegas.

The conversation begins with Chris discussing the current state of the Las Vegas Economy.

It’s recovering quickly. It’s going really well. If you go down to the Strip on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, Sunday, it is packed as it ever was. – Chris Anderson

Over the years, Vegas has constantly reinvented itself and introduced new trends that would be exported to the world. One of those trends is experiences. Chris explains why the trend of immersive experiences truly began in Vegas when Jay Sarno developed Caesars Palace in 1966.

[Caesars Palace] was really a project that took Las Vegas from being just gambling halls and extremely gaming-focused to a more of an experiential resort. – Chris Anderson

The trend of immersive experiences accelerated with Steve Wynn opening the Bellagio Hotel in 1998. The opening of the Bellagio also transformed the image of Vegas from midnight buffets and cheap rooms to a luxury destination.

With Vegas emerging as a hub of mobility with Aptiv, The Boring Company, Lyft, Motional, Nuro, Uber, and Zoox, all operating in Vegas, Grayson, and Chris discuss why Las Vegas.

We have a very welcoming community that is very welcome to innovation and new people, new companies. Our regulatory framework reflects that. – Chris Anderson

It’s not only the community and the regulatory framework it’s the Vegas brand.

It’s the ultimate branding opportunity. If you launch in Las Vegas, you are going to get hundreds of millions, if not billions of impressions around the world, because Las Vegas is such a destination. – Chris Anderson

While a majority of the revenues generated in Las Vegas today are non-gaming revenues, online gaming is growing at a rapid pace. With the growth of online gaming and Motional and Zoox preparing to offer autonomous vehicle services for paying passengers, Grayson asks Chris when bespoke online gambling experiences will be offered in resort branded autonomous vehicles.

There is no doubt that that is going to happen. Obviously, we have great online sports betting opportunities right now. Sometime in the future, I can see full internet gaming being an option. So, when those products are ready for it and the autonomous vehicle industry is ready for it, there is no doubt in my mind that that will happen. – Chris Anderson

Autonomous vehicles companies that will benefit from this trend the most, are companies that have chosen to build a bespoke vehicle from the ground up.

Autonomous vehicles that are not retrofitted will enable unique partnerships with gaming companies due to the design and the user experience in the vehicle. The immersive user experience will expand to sports teams such as the Las Vegas Raiders and the Golden Knights.

Wrapping up the conversation, Grayson and Chris discuss Casinos and their role in the growth of online gaming and how in-autonomous vehicle gamming could expand globally.

Recorded on Tuesday, November 11, 2021

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