Lyft said it is working with self-driving startup Drive.ai to get semi-autonomous vehicles on the Bay Area streets by the end of the year, Recode reports. A driver will still be in the vehicle to take over in case human intervention is needed. Drive.ai is the fourth autonomous software company Lyft has signed a partnership with.
Why it matters: Lyft and rival Uber are in a race to deploy self-driving cars so that drivers are eventually not needed — therefore eliminating the need to split ride-hailing fares with the drivers. These are just tests at the moment, but show how quickly the companies are trying to perfect the technology. Lyft is also working with Waymo and nuTonomy which expects to put semi-autonomous cars on Boston streets by the end of the year.
