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A self-driving Lyft in Las Vegas. Photo courtesy of Motional
Autonomous vehicles will be available on Lyft's ride-sharing network in multiple U.S. cities beginning in 2023, Lyft and self-driving tech company Motional announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: It represents a potential milestone in the commercial rollout of self-driving technology, which AV developers say will lead to safer, lower-cost transportation.
- The announcement comes less than two weeks after rival Uber pulled the plug on AV development, selling its self-driving unit to Aurora, which could one day deploy robotaxis on the Uber network.
Details: Motional, a joint venture between Hyundai and Aptiv, will integrate its next-generation self-driving Hyundais into the Lyft network in several unnamed cities.
- The vehicles will be equipped with sensors, computers, and software to enable fully-driverless operation and remote vehicle assistance.
- Lyft will be responsible for the rideshare network and customer experience.
- A small fleet of self-driving test vehicles (with a human safety driver) have been available on the Lyft network in Las Vegas for several years.
- Last month, Motional received permission from the state of Nevada to remove the driver from those cars.
The bottom line: After years of hype, autonomous vehicles could find a path to market within a few years.