Lyft launches mobile-powered Robotaxis soon in 2026, starts in Dallas
Ridehale’s giant Lyft plans to bring mobile-powered, fully autonomous Robotaxis to Dallas’ “quickly” app “during 2026”.
The news comes one day before Lyft shares its fourth quarter and annual revenue report, coinciding with preparations to launch Waymo’s commercial Robotaxi service and join the partnership. Uber in Austin And later, Atlanta. Tesla also shares plans to launch an autonomous ride operation Austin in June.
Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate with experience in managing the fleet, owns and funds the MobileYe equipped vehicle that appears on Lyft’s riding app. Lyft has yet to disclose its OEM partner for launch, but Mobileye’s advanced driver assistance technology is Already integrated For vehicles such as Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, Ford, General Motors.
Lyft also did not share the number of vehicles to be launched in Dallas, but Lyft’s chief insurance officer Jeremy Bird plans to expand to thousands of vehicles in multiple cities after Lyft’s Texas debut He told TechCrunch that.
Marubeni’s partnership feels like Lyft’s non-Sequitur. The company owns subsidiaries in almost every industry, from food and real estate to agriculture and energy, but it doesn’t have a major presence in rides or self-driving cars.
That said, over the past few years, Malbeni has begun to dabble. 2021, The company has partnered with Mobileye Transit planning app Moovit will launch an on-demand mobility service in Japan. TechCrunch reached out to find out if the collaboration is still active.
Mobileye actually served as an intermediary between Lyft and Marubeni, Bird said. It is also important for Lyft’s lightest-heavy business model to find a partner who promises to own a fleet of vehicles.
“Mobileye has technology and connections with OEMs. We have a platform, so it’s a work where fleet ownership is a big missing piece,” Bird told TechCrunch. “And when there are people who have experience in (fleet management) and people who have the desire to become resources and first-movers, that changes the game for us.”
Marubeni leverages Lyft’s FlexDrive service to help manage your fleet and keep your asset usage high. FlexDrive is a Lyft service that connects drivers who do not own a vehicle in a rental car. Bird says his fleet’s management experience, including real estate for charging, cleaning, maintaining and operating vehicles, will go a long way in supporting autonomous vehicles in the future.
Byrd pointed out that Lyft is in discussion with all the major autonomous players about bringing it to the platform. And Lyft probably wants to kick these conversations into gear as its main competitor, Uber, is robbing its partnership with other AV companies. Apart from Waymo, Uber has announced its deal Wave, Avride, Provides robotics, just, Aurora’s innovation, Guarand others.
Other than MobileYe transactions, Lyft has just announced its release plans. AVS with May Mobility in Atlanta this year.
However, Lyft’s slow role to autonomy is not because there are no attempts. The company is suffering from bad luck in the AV arena.
Lyft previously launched the Robotaxi service in Las Vegas in partnership with Startups Motional and Argo AI. Initially, a human safety driver was behind the wheels, but the plan was to be completely unmanned. after that Motional suspended its partnership May after Reduce that workforceand Argo AI shut down in 2022. Lyft placed a bet on Argo and got a A $135.7 million hit When the company folds up.
Before that, Lyft was trying to develop automotive technology in-house. Uber did the same thing. Both sold AV units. Aurora from Uber December 2020, and lyft to the weave planet of Toyota April 2021.
Bird acknowledged that Uber’s AV partnership “creates urgency,” but also showed that Robotaxis’ deployments don’t concentrate on one company.
He says that Lyft’s goal is to build a solid partnership between both companies developing AV Tech and companies that want to own a fleet of self-driving cars that match Lyft’s Asset-Light Business model. He said.
“The rest of the value chain is where we really want to play a role, and it’s in fleet management, demand generation, markets,” Byrd said.