Lyft adds Ford as a self-driving car ally
Lyft just can’t stop dating when it comes to selfdriving cars.
Ford Motor announced Wednesday it has entered into a partnership with the ride-hailing company to share information in order to accelerate the launch of a commercial self-driving car service.
Lyft plans to be the first ridehailing company to deploy selfdriving cars built by a major automaker, Lyft spokesperson Sheila Bryson says. Lyft expects to deploy pilot programs in the coming years and be fully operational by 2021.
The two companies will use the partnership to create platforms that are technologically compatible, determine what U.S. cities may be the best candidates for such a service and to understand what infrastructure will be needed.
“Think of it this way,” Sherif Marakby, Ford’s vice president for autonomous vehicles and electrification, wrote in a blog post announcing the partnership. “Someday, when you open the Lyft app during a period of high demand, Ford and Lyft software will need to be capable of quickly dispatching a self-driving vehicle so that you can get to your destination as quickly and as safely as possible.”
Lyft has been rapidly adding more partners to an autonomous-car dance card that now includes both industry pioneers, such as Google parent Alphabet’s Waymo and upstarts such as autonomous car software and hardware builder Drive.ai.
Self-driving technology is considered critical to ride-hailing companies such as Lyft and Uber, which currently use much of their considerable cash to either recruit drivers or keep fares artificially low.
While most transportation experts don’t expect self-driving cars to find wide success in suburbs, many congested urban centers are prime candidates for fleets of electric autonomous cars that can remain in constant motion and eliminate the need for parking.
Uber, which remains the dominant ride-hailing service in the U.S., has been aggressive about launching its own self-driving car program.
But more recently, the company has been grappling with a series of self-inflicted wounds that saw its co-founder and CEO, Travis Kalanick, who was replaced by former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.
Ride-hailing company says it will be fully operational by 2021