Lyft, Waymo team up on self-driving vehicles
Two key players in Silicon Valley’s battle to define the future of transportation are teaming up, taking aim at a common enemy.
Waymo, the self-driving division of Google’s parent Alphabet, and ride-hailing company Lyft are partnering to test driverless car technology, the companies confirmed.
Both companies face a bitter foe in Uber, and are seizing the moment as their rival stumbles. Uber, which is valued privately by investors at close to $70 billion, dwarfs Lyft in the ride-hailing arena, while Google is neck-in-neck with Uber in a race to develop autonomous vehicles.
“We can confirm that we are partnering with Waymo to safely and responsibly launch self-driving vehicle pilots,” a Lyft spokeswoman said in an email. “Waymo holds today’s best self-driving technology, and collaborating with them will accelerate our shared vision of improving lives with the world’s best transportation.”
Waymo also confirmed the partnership, which was first reported by the New York Times. “We’re looking forward to working with Lyft to explore new self-driving products that will make our roads safer and transportation more accessible,” a spokesman said in an emailed statement. “Lyft’s vision and commitment to improving the way cities move will help Waymo’s self-driving technology reach more people.”
Uber has faced a series of setbacks that have made the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut very vulnerable. The company is in a legal battle with Waymo over the potential theft of trade secrets from Waymo’s self-driving car program. This week a district judge referred the case to federal criminal prosecutors for investigation.
Meanwhile, Lyft has been benefiting from a wave of consumers that have quit Uber following a sexual harassment scandal and a leaked video of Uber’s chief executive cursing at a driver.
The deal appears to play off the assets each company brings to the table. Lyft, which is privately valued at $7.5 billion, doesn’t have the resources to invest in self-driving car technology. But Lyft has a network of consumers that use the company’s app. Waymo, which is not consumer-facing, could benefit from that network as it races to bring the technology to the public.
Anheuser-Busch is NEW YORK — upgrading its U.S. breweries and plans to build two new distribution centers as it adapts to an increasingly fragmented beer market.
The maker of Budweiser, Bud Light and Stella Artois says the upgrades and new distribution centers in Los Angeles and Columbus, will allow it to store a greater variety of products and get them to customers faster. The measures are part of the $500 million that the company said Monday it will invest in its U.S. operations this year, marking an increase compared with recent years. It’s a portion of the $3.7 billion in global capital expenditures that the Belgian company had already budgeted for 2017.
Anheuser-Busch has struggled to boost sales volumes as craft beers grow increasingly popular in an already crowded marketplace. In 2016, total volume at Anheuser-Busch declined 2 percent, including a 1.6 percent volume decline in North America.
The same thing is happening with non-alcoholic drinks. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi has said the industry is becoming more “niche,” and that PepsiCo needs to learn how to thrive amid that growing complexity.
The investment announced by Anheuser-Busch Monday includes upgrades to breweries in Fort Collins, Colorado, and St. Louis, Missouri. The company did not say how many new jobs it expects this year’s U.S. investments to create. It has added around 2,500 jobs since 2013, the company said. Anheuser-Busch employs more than 17,000 people in the U.S.
In 2015, Anheuser-Busch had said it expects to invest $1.5 billion from that year to 2018. The Monday announcement was an update, with the company saying it is spending $2 billion from this year through 2020.