TechCrunch Mobility: Lyft has entered the robotaxi chat

Lyft has put Waymo's driverless robotaxis onto its platform in Nashville, expanding how riders can access autonomous vehicles. Under the partnership, Lyft is responsible for fleet-related operations through its wholly owned unit Flexdrive, handling tasks like vehicle readiness, maintenance and depot logistics. Customers in the market can summon a Waymo car directly from Waymo's app or request one through Lyft, which will match riders to an available Waymo vehicle when possible.

The Nashville debut marks a notable shift for Lyft, which has pursued autonomous tech through partnerships for years but had not before offered fully driverless robotaxi service on its main app. Past collaborations included work with Aptiv (now Motional) in Las Vegas, May Mobility in Atlanta, Baidu in London and Waymo in Phoenix. Lyft also invested in its own AV program under the Level 5 division for several years before selling that unit to Toyota’s Woven Planet Holdings for $550 million in 2021.

After stepping away from in-house AV development to concentrate on its core ride-hailing business, Lyft has kept the door open to autonomous vehicles via external partnerships. Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s executive vice president of growth, said the company entered 2026 focused on expanding its Waymo collaboration in Nashville and its relationship with Baidu in London, and he expects the company’s AV offerings to diversify in the near term.

International expansion appears central to Lyft's AV strategy, with the company prioritizing markets where it can operate hybrid networks of both autonomous and human-driven vehicles and where regulation permits AV deployment. That approach would let Lyft introduce driverless service alongside conventional rides from the outset rather than building separate systems, a model Bird indicated the company favors as it grows beyond its U.S. roots.