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Lyft Sets Up Self-Driving-Car Unit
Ride-hailing service Lyft Inc. is launching its own facility in Palo Alto, Calif., to develop autonomous-vehicle technology.
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Ride-hailing service Lyft Inc. is launching its own facility in Palo Alto, Calif., to develop autonomous-vehicle technology.
The company plans to hire several hundred people for the unit, dubbed Level 5, by the end of 2018. Level 5 signifies technology that is able to control a car automatically under all conditions that could otherwise be handled by a human driver.
Until now, Lyft has kept up with the fast pace of self-driving-car technology development by partnering with such companies as General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover and Waymo. Now it says it wants to take a more proactive role.
The company’s relatively late start enables it to capitalize on cheaper hardware. But it also puts Lyft years behind rivals—notably Uber Technologies Inc., which set up its autonomous group in 2015—in terms of in-house expertise and experience.
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