Lyft drivers will have access to GM cars and OnStar services, making the ride-sharing options on offer more attractive.
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GM is investing $500 million in the ride-summoning startup, representing half of Lyft’s current $1 billion funding round.
The deal would immediately make GM a “preferred provider” of short-term use vehicles available for rent to today’s Lyft drivers.
Like Lyft, Uber is also working to expand beyond its current reliance on user-owned cars to autonomous vehicle services.
At this stage, no date has been set as to when we could see the program in operation. GM and Lyft also aren’t disclosing where the rental option will debut for drivers, or what the pricing will look like.
Ammann said the alliance should not be viewed as odd given Lyft is in the business of ride sharing, which theoretically hurts automobile sales for the likes of GM. In a press release, GM said it would work with Lyft to “leverage GM’s deep knowledge of autonomous technology”.
Lyft, based in San Francisco, investment from General Motors, believed to be the biggest bet from the global auto industry, was part of Lyft’s fresh round of efforts to raise $1 billion investment needed to facilitate rapid growth.
John Zimmer, President and Co-Founder of Lyf, said, “Working with GM, Lyft will continue to unlock new transportation experiences that bring positive changes to our daily lives”.
For GM, developing self-driving cars would allow them to challenge competitors like Google and Tesla, who have been dominating the autonomous vehicle market up to this point.
“Together we will build a better future by redefining traditional vehicle ownership”.
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Lyft has also been backed by investors like Alibaba, Didi Kuaidi, Tencent holdings, Rakuten etc. In September, Uber announced that it is funding $5.5 million to Carnegie Mellon’s National Robotics Engineering Center to support a new faculty chair in robotics. Daniel Ammann, president of GM, will now join Lyft’s board of directors.
