Lyft’s New Pacts Are the Mobility Industry’s Latest Autonomy Moves

Lyft (LYFT) has joined rideshare rival Uber (UBER) in signing a number of partnerships with autonomous driving software makers to bring “robotaxis” to its platform.

Lyft on Wednesday announced partnerships — with software maker Mobileye (MBLY), along with May Mobility and Nexar — as the company said it plans to “continue to partner with additional industry leaders to shape the future of mobility.” The deals mark the latest moves by tech companies to stake out ground in autonomous driving.

Lyft and May Mobility will bring a fleet of Toyota Sienna minivans using May’s self-driving technology to Atlanta next year. Lyft said it will bring vehicles with Mobileye’s self-driving software to the Lyft network, while the partnership with Nexar will combine Lyft’s data with Nexar’s driving video footage to “jointly contribute to a more complete data set for autonomous research and development.”

Tesla (TSLA) last month unveiled its own autonomous taxi, still years from operating on the roads. Uber recently announced a number of partnerships with AV makers like Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Waymo and General Motors’ (GM) Cruise.

Analysts have said Uber and Lyft are likely beneficiaries of AV companies looking to partner to scale their market rather than build their own ridesharing network to compete with Tesla, but have also cautioned that the development and regulatory approval of the software put the market years into the future.

The announcements came ahead of Lyft reporting third quarter results after Wednesday’s closing bell. The company turned in revenue of $1.5 billion, ahead of expectations as tracked by Visible Alpha, and a net loss narrower than forecast.