Lyft riders can now hail Waymo robotaxis in Nashville

Lyft Inc. is starting to offer Waymo robotaxi rides in Nashville, marking the second U.S. city where it’s providing driverless trips as it plays catch-up with rival Uber Technologies Inc.

Through the partnership, first announced a year ago, Lyft customers may be matched at no additional cost with a Waymo autonomous vehicle when they order a regular ride, the companies said in a statement Wednesday.

In order for a match to happen, the desired route must start and end within Waymo’s existing service area. Users can decline a driverless ride or opt out entirely.

Waymo, which has been offering rides in Nashville since April, has said that it operates more than a hundred vehicles across a 60-square-mile area.

Availability will “continue to grow gradually over the coming weeks” to serve users who choose to book on the Lyft or Waymo apps, according to the statement. Human-driven rides will continue to be provided on the Lyft app.

Ride-hailing companies such as Lyft and Uber have been partnering with robotaxi developers to prepare for a future in which driverless vehicles could increasingly threaten their core businesses. Uber offers Waymo rides exclusively in two U.S. cities (Atlanta and Austin), but has lately had a strained relationship with Alphabet Inc., which owns Waymo, over issues including economics, safety and reliability.

Waymo told Uber earlier this year that in January 2028 it will begin offering service through its own app in the two markets where the companies are currently locked into an exclusivity agreement.

For now, autonomous rides still account for a small segment of the ride-hailing market since robotaxi makers face supply chain and regulatory hurdles, as well as operational hiccups that come with launching the nascent technology in new locales and climates.

Uber, which got a head start over Lyft in offering autonomous rides, has said it will commit more than $10 billion over the next few years toward becoming a go-to app for hailing autonomous vehicles.

It has invested in driverless technology developers and partnered with dozens of companies — including Waymo and several Chinese robotaxi providers — to offer the service in multiple cities in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

Lyft, for its part, has outlined a similar vision about its role in the autonomous future, although its partnerships are still in their early stages. So far, it has been offering driverless vehicles with May Mobility Inc. in Atlanta since last year.

The Nashville agreement marks the first between Waymo and Lyft, with Lyft’s fleet management unit Flexdrive helping to look after the cars in a purpose-built depot that’s opening in October.

Lung writes for Bloomberg.