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The
Nashville plan calls for robotaxi ride requests to initially be
limited to Waymo's own mobile app before expanding on to Lyft's
app later next year.
Waymo's decision to work with Lyft in Tennessee's biggest city
means its robotaxis will now be available on the apps of the two
largest ride-hailing services in the U.S.
As part of earlier expansions, Waymo is already dispatching
robotaxis through Uber's app i n Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
Electric automaker Tesla has been testing a limited driverless
service in Austin in an attempt to fulfill an ambitious plan
that CEO Elon Musk has been pursuing for the past decade.
Even if it's in only one city, getting Waymo's industry-leading
robotaxis on its app could help Lyft continue its recovery from
the pandemic restrictions that decimated demand for rides. Uber
bounced back from the pandemic more quickly, a comeback that has
been reflected in both its financial results and market value,
which has tripled since the end of 2019.
Lyft's stock price, in contrast, remains nearly 50% below where
it stood at the end of 2019. As part of its turnaround efforts,
Lyft hired former Amazon executive David Risher as its CEO two
years ago. Risher previously negotiated a partnership with May
Mobility that is now providing driverless rides in Atlanta in
competition with Waymo and Uber.
Investors interpreted the Waymo partnership as a positive sign
for Lyft, whose shares surged 13% Wednesday to close at $22.84.
This is not the first time that Waymo and Lyft have worked
together. During the testing phase of its robotaxi service in
Phoenix in 2019, Waymo offered a limited number of rides through
Lyft. That arrangement ended after Waymo completed the Phoenix
tests and began accepting driverless rides from all interested
passengers on its own app more than five years ago.
Since starting in Arizona, Waymo's robotaxis have provided more
than 250,000 trips in cities from the San Francisco Bay Area to
Los Angeles, as well as Austin and Atlanta. Waymo, which began
in 2009 as a secret project within Google, also plans to expand
into Dallas next year.
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