In Austin, Texas, Lyft has begun providing autonomous robotaxi rides with two safety drivers present. Ford vehicles will use Argo AI’s technology to power the autonomous drives.
Users can request an autonomous ride through the Lyft app, similar to how they would hail a regular Lyft car. The cost of the rides will be the same as it is for regular Lyft trips.
Riders use the Lyft app to unlock the doors and begin their ride when the car arrives. At the moment, two safety operators will share rides with passengers. In the future, however, the company wants to offer rides that can be taken by themselves.
After Miami and Las Vegas, Austin is the third city that Lyft offers autonomous rides in. In December 2021, the company started providing rides in Miami. As part of a partnership between the three companies, which was announced in July 2021, the Ford cars used for these rides are also equipped with Argo AI technology.
Lyft started providing autonomous rides using Motional technology in Las Vegas this year but plans a more extensive commercial launch for 2023. Riders can request autonomous rides from Motional’s robotaxi, which is based on an all-electric Hyundai IONIQ 5.
The company stated that the layoffs were a result of changes made to its business plan to continue on its path toward driverless deployments. Argo AI announced that it had laid off 150 employees and closed its autonomous vehicle operation in Washington, DC earlier this year.
While Lyft and Argo AI have already started providing driverless rides in Austin, GM’s self-driving unit, Cruise, has also announced plans to start providing driverless robotaxi rides in Austin and Phoenix before the end of the year.
Cruise made its first driverless deployment in San Francisco, where the business has recently started charging for fully autonomous robotaxi rides. In the city, Cruise currently runs 70 driverless taxis.
Waymo, a division of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, competes with Cruise in Phoenix and San Francisco. In March 2022, Waymo began providing fully autonomous rides to its employees in San Francisco, and in August, it provided fully autonomous rides to participants in its trusted tester program in downtown Phoenix. Since 2020, Waymo has been operating in the suburbs of Phoenix since 2020.
