Lyft Adds Ford to Its List of Self-Driving Car Partners<br />At the same time, Lyft has also opened a new self-driving research facility in Palo Alto, Calif.,<br />and plans to recruit new engineering and autonomous vehicle researchers to develop its own autonomous vehicle technology.<br />Allies like Waymo, one of Google’s sister companies, which has agreed to work on self-driving technology with<br />Lyft, could eventually become a competitor if Waymo ever decides to create its own ride-hailing network<br />Lyft has tried to position itself as an agnostic player in the autonomous vehicle industry with its Open Platform Initiative, under which it will cooperate with car manufacturers to test their self-driving cars<br />and use their technology on its ride-hailing network.<br />On Wednesday, the companies said they had struck a partnership to develop<br />and test autonomous vehicle designs and technology, with the aim of putting Ford’s self-driving vehicles on Lyft’s ride-hailing network in the future.<br />It’s a whole different world doing this on a large scale.”<br />The partnership represents another shift on the rapidly changing landscape for self-driving cars, where traditional automakers like General Motors<br />and Silicon Valley companies including Waymo and Uber are all jockeying for the lead.<br />“We’re focused on partnering with the auto industry because frankly, we think we can’t do this alone<br />and need each other to be successful,” said Raj Kapoor, Lyft’s chief strategy officer.
