Trying to grab a piece of the potentially lucrative autonomous vehicle market, rideshare giant Lyft LYFT 2.66%↑ has announced partnerships this week with May Mobility, Intel-owned INTC 4.83%↑ Mobileye and Nexar.
In the first deal, Lyft will offer its app to launch autonomous vehicle service with May Mobility in Atlanta next year. Lyft’s partnership with Mobileye makes the company’s rideshare platform available to vehicles using Mobileye’s self-driving technology—primarily small and large fleet operators.
Lyft said it is pairing its data with Nexar’s hundreds of millions of hours of video footage to contribute to autonomous research and development. Lyft’s data market will be a B2B play with the company offering fleet data for OEMs and AV companies.
Lyft is trying to keep up with competitor Uber UBER -2.89%↓, which has partnered with Waymo, to offer robotaxi rides in Phoenix. In addition, Uber has cut deals with sidewalk delivery companies and autonomous truck manufacturers.
Lyft is an experienced, and battered, veteran of the autonomous vehicle wars. It had a partnership with Motional in Las Vegas, which is not currently in operation. In addition, it was a major stakeholder in Argo AI, which shuttered in 2022, leaving Lyft with a $137.7 million loss.
