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Lyft Says Most of Its Taxis Will Be Autonomous in 5 Years
U.S. ride-hailing service Lyft Inc. expects most of the cars its customers summon five years from now will be self-driving vehicles.
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U.S. ride-hailing service Lyft Inc. expects most of the cars its customers summon five years from now will be self-driving vehicles.
President and co-founder John Zimmer tells Time magazine that Lyft will introduce autonomous taxis in two years that will be able to drive themselves along fixed routes. Such vehicles will soon be followed by taxis that can operate autonomously on virtually any route at speeds no higher than 25 mph. He predicts completely autonomous Lyft taxis will become available by about 2021.
When that happens, car ownership in major U.S. cities will begin to shrink, because hailing automatic taxis will be cheaper and more convenient, according to Zimmer. He estimates U.S. consumers currently spend some $2 trillion per year—roughly $9,000 per year—to own cars that are used an average of only about one hour per day.
Zimmer’s comments came as Lyft rival Uber Technologies Inc. began testing self-driving taxis in Pittsburgh last week. Lyft and General Motors Co. plan to conduct similar tests with a fleet of driverless Chevrolet Bolt electric taxis in another city next spring.
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