There’s a saying that you should ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ and it appears General Motors could be doing exactly that.
The company owns a nine percent stake in ride-sharing service Lyft but a new report from Reuters suggests GM could be preparing to offer a competitor in the form of Maven.
The GM-owned company allows customers to rent a vehicle for as little as $8 an hour and has recently launched its Gig service which enables San Diego residents to rent a Chevrolet Bolt for $229 per week and then use it to work for GrubHub, Instacart, Roadie, Lyft, or Uber.
Despite the appearance of helping the two ride-sharing services, Reuters notes the company is “quietly assembling the knowledge and expertise to enable GM eventually to compete directly with Uber, Lyft, and other startups in offering on-demand mobility services.” Maven’s Julia Steyn seemed to back up this theory by telling the publication, “You’re on the right track. We are building this out step-by-step.”
General Motor’s work on autonomous Chevrolet Bolts could also factor into the potential ride-sharing service as its Cruise Automation subsidiary recently launched its own autonomous ride-hailing service known as Cruise Anywhere. The service is currently limited to Cruise employees but it not hard to imagine it could eventually become a threat to Uber and Lyft.
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