Lyft to deploy self-driving cars in San Francisco Bay Area

Lyft will soon begin a limited test of self-driving cars for passengers in the San Francisco Bay Area, targeting one of the most important ridesharing markets.

The company is partnerning with a startup called Drive.ai, which will initially supply a small number of vehicles, Reuters said on Thursday. Passengers will have to specifically opt into the program, and each car will still have a human backup driver.

As a tradeoff, though, self-driving rides will be free, since Lyft's main goal is to gauge passenger reactions, and Drive.ai is hoping to perform more testing and refine its software. The latter company will also be supplying its own mapping data. It's not known when the first rides will begin.

Lyft is a relatively late entry into self-driving systems, especially since its chief U.S. rival — Uber — has been testing on roads in Pennsylvania and Arizona for some time. In July however it announced the creation of a dedicated division, including a Palo Alto facility that will play home to hundreds of engineers.

It's also partnering with companies like Waymo, Jaguar Land Rover, and General Motors, and by the end of 2017 should launch a pilot program in Boston, run with the help of Nutonomy.

Apple's own autonomous tech may be aimed at the ridehailing market, likely in partnership with outside firms. Self-driving cars are expected to be too expensive for most people to own at first, and app-based services could be a natural fit for the iPhone maker.

2 Comments

slprescott 759 comments · 10 Years

About 7 years ago

The demo video @ the drive.ai website it impressive: during night and rainy conditions the car is fully able to detect road & lane boundaries for safe navigation.

I don't understand Apple's business model if they choose to enter this space. (a) they don't want to build their own vehicle, (b) the major car manufacturers are already building their own autonomy solutions, and (c) the major ride-sharing providers already have solutions in beta. I'm sure there's an answer, but I don't (yet) see it.

mark fearing 439 comments · 16 Years

About 7 years ago

slprescott said:

The demo video @ the drive.ai website it impressive: during night and rainy conditions the car is fully able to detect road & lane boundaries for safe navigation.

I don't understand Apple's business model if they choose to enter this space. (a) they don't want to build their own vehicle, (b) the major car manufacturers are already building their own autonomy solutions, and (c) the major ride-sharing providers already have solutions in beta. I'm sure there's an answer, but I don't (yet) see it.

I'm with you. Not sure where they fit. But saying that we must realize that some out there will fail. I suspect many of the automobile companies efforts will be lacking. Their technology ramp up will be slow. I would guess - this is my guess- that Apple wants to create a 'best in class' solution and license with heavy 'hardware' involvement to companies that are looking for a solution better than what they can do. OR Apple could pull a switch and make vehicles once all the standards and laws and infrastructure are in place. I think in the log run Tesla may be the one who is hurt by this. If electric became a commodity and everyone has intelligent cars they will face a difficult market. As I imagine the luxury car makers will have very impressive models for those who want to spend 80,000 grand and up on cars.