Lyft is set to begin the use of autonomous vehicles in its fleet starting in Dallas “as soon as 2026,” CEO David Risher posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The rideshare company is slated to partner with Marubeni, a Japanese company, who will own the fleet outfitted with Mobileye Drive technology. Lyft announced a partnership with Mobileye Drive in November.
The company said in an email to USA TODAY that it plans to expand the fleet in different cities, but did not provide locations or timing on the expansion.
Lyft said that once service rolls out, users will be able to choose an autonomous vehicle in the app.
Lyft in talks with autonomous car makers for fleet
Lyft did not announce if they would be partnering with a car manufacturer for the fleet, but Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s executive vice president of driver experience, told TechCrunch − who first reported the announcement − that the company is in talks with all makers to bring them onto the platform.
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The executive told the tech news site that Mobileye served as the middleman to make the deal between the ride-share giant and the Japanese conglomerate that will own the cars.
“Mobileye’s got the technology and the relationship with the OEMs, and we have the platform, so it’s the ownership of the fleet that’s the big missing piece,” Bird told TechCrunch.
Lyft has previously announced that it intends to launch autonomous vehicles in Atlanta this year with startup May Mobility.
