Lyft cancels car-pool feature amid report company has sought a buyer
Lyft hit pause on its commuter carpool feature on Friday, citing the lack of driver opt-in for its failure. The news, first reported by Forbes, came just hours after the New York Times reported that the ride-hailing company had in recent months sought and failed to secure a buyer.
“There is no shortage of conflicting rumors in our industry, and we are not commenting on them,” Lyft spokesman Tim Rathschmidt said of report the company had pursued a sale.
The San Francisco startup is believed to still have deep pockets after receiving $500 million in funding from General Motors earlier this year, but it faces mounting pressure from even better funded competitor, Uber.
Lyft did acknowledge that its commuter carpool feature didn’t go as planned, though.
Launched as a test in March in the Bay Area, Lyft Carpool was the firm’s foray into traditional commuter carpooling. Any driver could sign up and make up to $10 by giving a ride to someone who was headed in the same direction.
The feature was different to Lyft Line, which is the company’s algorithm-enabled carpooling feature that matches passengers headed in the same direction. Lyft Line remains an important and fast-growing service for the company; it reported that since the start of this year, weekly Lyft Line rides in Los Angeles alone have increased by 177%.
“While we think a scheduled carpool feature is the right long-term strategy, it is too soon to scale to a meaningful level where supply matches demand,” Rathschmidt said in a prepared statement. “We learned a lot and will apply it to new and existing projects — like Lyft Line — as we drive our vision forward to solve pain points in commuting.”
The move is a setback for the company, an underdog to the ride-hailing juggernaut Uber. Uber hasn’t yet launched a commuter carpooling feature, but signaled earlier this year in emails to the California Public Utilities Commission that it was considering a similar service.
Twitter: @traceylien
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