Courtesy of Lyft
Ford is joining Lyft's "open platform" to work on autonomous driving technology, the companies announced on Wednesday. Ford will use Lyft's ride-hailing service to test and develop software and will eventually deploy self-driving cars, according to a blog post by Sherif Marakby, Ford VP of autonomous vehicles (and a former Uber exec).
Why it matters: The partnership is timely for both companies. While Lyft is pushing to catch up to rival Uber and others in the self-driving car race via its platform and in-house technology efforts,
Ford is in the midst of a turnaround to emphasize new autonomous technology under new chief Jim Hackett.
Other partners: Lyft has already inked similar partnerships with Jaguar, nuTonomy, Drive.ai, Waymo (Alphabet's self-driving car unit), and General Motors, which also invested $500 million in the ride-hailing company last year.