Lyft joins the AV party

Top Stories of the Week

Lyft partners with May Mobility, Mobileye to bring autonomous vehicles to the app (link). Lyft announced three separate partnerships — with startup May Mobility, automated driving company Mobileye, and smart dashcam firm Nexar — all aimed at establishing a foothold in the emerging autonomous vehicle market. 

Busy day for the team at Lyft but as Rebecca points out, ‘this isn’t Lyft’s first time delving into autonomous vehicles’. The AV space is littered with announcements like this so I tend to take them with a grain of salt unless they clearly say, “we’re now giving driverless rides for hire in XYZ city” Is there anything else that really matters? This announcement sounds good on paper, got lots of media attention (even worked with me!), and will allay investor questions about driverless disruption; so it was still a savvy business move by Lyft. But I’m not sure it does much to actually strengthen their position in the AV space. Lyft is falling behind Uber here and if I were them, I’d be banging down Waymo’s door looking to do a launch on the Lyft app, a la Uber.

And if that doesn’t work, maybe they should try ringing Zoox..

Zoox Robotaxi spotted driverless for the first time ever in San Francisco (link). Folks, it looks like Waymo might finally have some competition. Although I still can’t get over how funny looking the vehicle is. It looks like a smooth ride though and yes there is no driver in the vehicle. I’ll be in SF in a couple weeks so will get the chance to check them out in person.

Why Elon Musk’s Robotaxi Dreams Are Premature (link). The Tesla fans in the comments section were not happy with this article but I thought it was fair. If we ignore Elon’s politics and focus on his business achievements, SpaceX and Tesla are insanely impressive. His bottom up approach with FSD is also a big swing and ‘industry experts’ are once again saying it can’t be done. Would it really shock anyone if Tesla eventually figured out FSD? If they do, watch out everybody else..

What Happens When Uber Doesn’t Have to Pay Drivers? (link). Maxinomics (great Youtube channel by the way) discusses the impact of driverless technology on the ride-sharing industry, specifically focusing on the potential impact on Uber. The video is well done and cites some interesting data but the one thing he doesn’t address is fleet utilization. If Waymo has enough vehicles for New Year’s Eve in Chicago, then what do they do with all of the vehicles on Tuesday afternoon when they aren’t busy? I feel like I’m the only one who cares about this, so I’m probably either really right, or really wrong that it will be an issue.

Are we nearing the end of checked bags and rental cars for domestic travel? Imagine packing your autonomous car and sending it to your destination the night before you fly (link). Neat idea but not sure how practical it is. AV companies are focusing on rideshare first because you can get such high utilization from this use case and you’ll have a faster payback period on CapEx. A D2C approach would be interesting but would have to target the higher end of the market. There are a lot of interesting second order effects that AVs will have on real estate but predicting when those will come to fruition is above my pay grade. It is fun though..

Cool Rides | Halloween Costumes

Wow, what a surreal experience. I ordered a Waymo car, and it swiftly arrived to pick me up with no one inside! (link). This one is for all you ‘Drive to Survive’ fans! Cool to see Nico’s experience here although I might need a citation or two for some of those stats in his post :)

Driverless Cars in Austin, Texas! | Waymo Ride Along #8 (with Ollie Autonomy - had no idea he had an accent as we have only interacted on Twitter. Can you guess where he’s from?)

The highlight of my day was @LondonBreed posting a video of Sophia Tung winning the SF costume contest as a @Waymo with a spinning lidar that could display initials and the W logo (!!) absolutely 🔥(link). Sophia really showed up the kid above in the Waymo costume 😂

Other Stuff

Waymo did 12,000 autonomous rides in August 2023, and 312,000 in August 2024 (h/t Nat Bullard).

A bunch of Waymos charging up at a TeraWatt station near SoFi stadium (link). That’s it, that’s the tweet.

How Waymo Won Over San Francisco (link). In a recent The Journal pod episode, Meghan Bobrowsky talks about Waymo’s rocky start in San Francisco, where residents initially protested self-driving cars due to safety concerns and tech glitches. Over time, Waymo won the city over with a mix of improved performance, strategic marketing, and the exit of key competitor Cruise. Now, Waymo operates 300 cars in SF, with many riders praising their smooth rides, privacy, and added safety. Nice follow up to the article we featured recently. Podcast is worth a listen even if you read the article.

Want To Hail An Autonomous Vehicle? Pay More To Get There Slower (link). Gustavo compared 50 rides between Waymo, UberX, and Lyft in LA, finding that Waymo rides cost $9.50 more on average, took twice as long to pick up, and had 121% longer travel times due to conservative driving and no freeway use. Some Waymo drop-offs even required a short walk to reach the destination. While Waymo positions itself as a premium option, these extra costs and delays make it hard to compete with faster, cheaper rideshare services like Uber and Lyft. For now, Waymo mainly appeals to those wanting a unique AV experience rather than a reliable, scalable alternative.

Until next week.

-Harry