Lyft appears to have distanced itself from General Motors after the ride-sharing service announced it will partner with Google’s Waymo for future driverless vehicles and technology. The new partnership was confirmed by both Lyft and Waymo, The New York Times reports.
The news comes after GM invested $500 million into the company in 2016. At the time, GM envisioned a fleet of self-driving cars to be deployed by Lyft in the future. GM’s autonomous and driverless vehicle technology continues under development with GM Cruise Automation—the subsidiary is now wholly owned by the automaker.
“Waymo holds today’s best self-driving technology, and collaborating with them will accelerate our shared vision of improving lives with the world’s best transportation,” a Lyft spokeswoman said in a statement.
A Waymo spokesman said, “Lyft’s vision and commitment to improving the way cities move will help Waymo’s self-driving technology reach more people, in more places.”
It’s also unclear what this means for Waymo and Fiat-Chrysler; the two companies struck a deal to develop driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans, which are currently gearing up for consumer beta testing in the state of Arizona.
At the time of the report, Lyft alluded it will continue to work with GM to test autonomous Bolt EVs when they are deployed. We’ve reached out to GM for comment but our request was not immediately returned.
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