Ride-hailing firm Lyft is getting ready to pick up Boston area customers in self-driving cars following an alliance with autonomous tech startup NuTonomy.
The two companies will collaborate to study human interactions with self-driving cars, while NuTonomy is already testing autonomous electric cars in certain Boston neighborhoods, as reported by Autonews.
“The first stage of the partnership is focused on research and development on passenger experience,” stated Lyft CEO Logan Green. “The next stages could lead to thousands of NuTonomy cars on the Lyft platform.”
Green also announced that the pilot program will get underway in the “coming months” and that the two companies are currently in discussions with Boston regulators to set a date. As for NuTonomy, while they don’t build cars, they do develop self-driving software aimed at autonomous vehicle fleets. This program is set to use Renault Zoe electric vehicles, operating on NuTonomy’s platform and Lyft’s network.
This recent partnership follows reports of Lyft doing another similar deal with Waymo, which started offering autonomous rides to Arizona residents back in April.
Green said that each one of his company’s partnerships is “unique and different” and that Lyft’s agreement with NuTonomy will not affect any of their previous agreements, which include a deal with General Motors to deploy an autonomous fleet of cars next year.
