Back in January, General Motors invested $500 million in Lyft, which allowed the automaker to become a preferred provider of short-term-use vehicles to Lyft drivers and to share expertise between the two firms. Then, this past Tuesday, GM’s personal mobility brand, Maven, said that it is partnering with Uber, a Lyft rival and and the largest ride-sharing service in the U.S, on a pilot program to rent vehicles to Uber drivers in San Francisco.
At first glance, one would think that GM’s new tie-up with Uber wouldn’t go over well with Lyft, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
GM appears to be less concerned with politics, and more interested in making progress in the rapidly-evolving personal mobility space.
“This is a whole new world,” says Maven spokeswoman Annalisa Bluhm. “Everybody is trying to be as competitive as possible.”
Hence, GM-Maven doesn’t mind renting out its cars to drivers at both Uber and Lyft. In addition, the automaker also appears to be working on reaching similar agreements with other ride-sharing services around the world.
Lyft doesn’t seem to mind the development, either: “Maven’s supply channels do not impact our programs with GM. We continue to work together to shape the future of mobility.”
The last part of Lyft’s statement is worthy of closer inspection, as GM’s relationship with Lyft goes far beyond providing vehicles to Lyft drivers: as part of its $500 million investment in January, GM will share its knowledge of autonomous vehicles with Lyft, while Lyft in return will share its expertise in ride-sharing services with the objective of creating fleets of autonomous vehicle networks across the U.S. That isn’t a part of GM’s relationship with Uber, not to mention that The General didn’t invest a whopping half billion USD into it.
As such, it’s important to note the distinction: GM seems to be content on selling its vehicles to drivers of any and all ride sharing services. But it only has an ownership stake in Lyft, with which it is aiming to develop a fleet of autonomous vehicle networks. Hence, GM relationship with Lyft runs deeper and appears to have more long-term potential.
Comments
I will never, ever… Can’t say this loud enough, EVER, ride in an autonomous vehicle. I’m 42 years old, so maybe I’m too old for this stuff, but GM is definitely investing in the wrong thing for my age group. Or for any age group, for that matter. The very first tragic accident caused by an autonomous vehicle, will mean years, if not decades of delay in actually implementing the technology at a financially successful level. And, that first tragic accident, is not a matter of if, but when. It doesn’t matter that accidents happen every day even without autonomous vehicles, or that they happen even more often without autonomous vehicles, it will only matter that it does happen with autonomous vehicles. And that we, as humans, have zero control over it. GM is not thinking this through. They can’t even get the touch screen in the center console to work predictably and in line with how most people want or need it to, but somehow, we’ll just trust them with these driver-less cars… cause we want to party without consequence. Listen, it’s a losing bet. Shame on them for wasting the tax-payer chance they’ve been given on something that is literally multiple decades away. Shame on GM.
“Shame on GM.”
Yeah, go ahead and ‘shame’ GM spending its R&D budget on technology that every other automaker is doing.
GM shouldn’t have it’s own autonomous technology! In fact, GM should be at a DISADVANTAGE globally when other automakers have autonomous cars. GM should be forever behind the curve, never once taking the lead!
Just think, if GM sat on it’s hands and poo-poo’d every brand new piece of hardware that it’s engineers came up with, they’d be as big a loser as FCA is today!!
Just think of all those 5th and 7th place finishes GM’s products could have in the free marketplace! Think of all those DNQ reviews from product reviewers posted on YT for all to see! Think of all those parts manufactures who’ll take their expertise to more profitable industry giants! Why, GM could be sitting on top of the worlds largest pile non-competitiveness! Enough non-competitiveness to last it to at least until the gen-X’s dies off!
Say ‘YES’ to being boring and unremarkable! Let GM be overtaken by the rest of the automotive world!
In the mean time, I’m going to let the many, many, many thousands of automotive software engineers the world put all your little litigation fears to rest.
Here’s the thing. GM has already said yes to all of your sarcastic statements (check YT for proof). I’d sooner drive a Toyota Yaris than any GM vehicle, except for the Corvette. Or maybe the Acadia Denali, pre-2017 horrible makeover. So maybe I’m not the right person to comment on this story. However, some of my family members are die-hard GM owners, and even they admit that they feel like beta-testers every time they purchase a new one due to the frequent trips to the dealer to have embarrassingly simple problems fixed that should have never made it to production. They are never sad to let the old model go, along with it’s many, “quirks.” How about GM try to get anything at all right, before they charge forward to the FAR future. And hey, whatever, whatever.
It absolutely does not matter what you (or I or anyone) else think about any developments associated with autonomous vehicles. What matters is where the market is going.
So if you want to shame GM for investing in technologies that are clearly the future of this industry, then go right ahead… but be well aware that every other automaker is doing exactly the same thing. If you want a repeat of the 2009 bankruptcy in 30-40 years, then scream, yell, and moan all you want about how GM is “wasting” money (no longer tax-payer-funded, either) to future-proof its business. But any business will do exactly what GM is doing. And, at least for now, it’s great to see GM leading the charge in this space.
That said, I should also note that we’re not even talking about autonomous vehicles here. In the short term, we are talking about GM renting out fleet and off-lease vehicles to Lyft and Uber, thereby increasing the residuals of its used vehicles, which directly contributes to its core business:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/2016/11/lyft-uber-help-gm-with-used-car-residual-values/
Still feel like “shaming” GM?
Good link there, thanks for the info. That does clear it up a bit for me. Also though, just to clarify, I didn’t say they were using tax payer dollars to fund this, I said they were wasting a chance that was given to them by tax payers. I still think they should try getting a touch screen in any vehicle they produce to work, like, at least most of the time, before flying high into the future. Thanks again for the link though, that seems like a good deal.