Lyft Will Eventually Have a Fleet of Self Driving Fords

Lyft has partnered with Ford to bring self-driving vehicles to the ride-hailing service by 2021.

According to Reuters, the two companies will soon begin to develop software that will allow Ford vehicles to communicate with the Lyft smartphone app. The self-driving Ford vehicles will use a software called Argo AI to operate autonomously – a company that Ford has committed to investing $1 billion in over the next five years. Ford announced earlier this year it would also invest $700 million in its Flat Rock, Michigan assembly plant to build “high-tech electrified and autonomous vehicles.”

Ford is currently developing self-driving prototypes, but the automaker says it’s not doing so just for the sake of it. Eventually, it will put thousands of self-driving cars on the road, many of which will be deployed through Lyft. The automaker will soon put self-driving vehicles on Lyft’s network for testing purposes, but users won’t be able to order them. It’s not clear when Lyft users will be able to hail a self-driving Ford.

SEE ALSO: Lyft Teams up with Waymo to Catch Uber on Self-Driving Tech

Earlier this year, Google’s Waymo partnered with Fiat Chrysler to offer rides to Arizona residents in its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid prototypes. The vehicles have a human driver onboard, but the idea is to give rides with as little human intervention as possible.

With Ford jumping onboard with Lyft, all three major American automakers are now heavily involved in autonomous vehicle sharing. FCA has partnered with Waymo and earlier this year, GM spent $500 million to acquire a 9 percent stake in Lyft. Waymo has also partnered with Lyft to deploy its autonomous vehicles, so it will be interesting to see which of these companies rises to the forefront as the authority in app-based autonomous taxi services going forward.

[Source: Reuters]