# Lyft Goes All In on Driverless Car Tech



## FastEddie47 (Jan 10, 2017)

'To be clear, we aren't thinking of our self-driving division as a side project,' Lyft's VP of Engineering Luc Vincent wrote in a blog post. 'It's core to our business.'

By Angela Moscaritolo, PC Magazine
July 21, 2017 3:14PM EST

Watch out, Uber: Lyft is opening its own self-driving division.

Nextcar Bug artIn a blog post, Lyft's VP of Engineering, Luc Vincent, an ex-Googler who founded that company's Street View team, said Lyft is developing an "open self-driving system."

The announcement comes after Lyft earlier this year introduced what it calls "the world's first open self-driving platform." Car manufacturers and self-driving systems can access the network for insights on a "diverse set of real-life scenarios," based on Lyft's nearly one million rides per day.

Vincent, who joined Lyft in February, said the company's self-driving vehicles will operate on that network alongside vehicles introduced by Lyft partners.

"To be clear, we aren't thinking of our self-driving division as a side project," he wrote. "It's core to our business."

Ten percent of Lyft engineers are currently focused on developing self-driving technology, and the company is planning to grow that team in the months to come. Lyft's new self-driving team will work out of a brand-new Palo Alto, Calif. development facility dubbed Level 5 Engineering Center. The name is a nod to SAE International's standard, which defines automated driving based on six levels of capability, ranging from zero (no automation) to 5 (full automation).

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For Lyft drivers concerned about their livelihood, Vincent said Lyft will "always operate a hybrid network, with rides from both human-driven and self-driving cars."

"When a passenger requests a ride that a self-driving car can complete, we may send one to complete the trip," he wrote. "If that person needs to go somewhere self-driving cars are unable to navigate, or their needs call for a different level of service, they will have a driver."

Last fall, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer argued that private car ownership will be a thing of the past by 2025. Citizens will instead rely on self-driving taxis, and in the process free up land now occupied by parking lots and congested streets for new businesses and public spaces.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

lol what they don't realize is that nobody is going to be getting in any of these death traps


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## 68350 (May 24, 2017)

I honestly don't understand why Lyft/Uber would want the enormous overhead of purchasing, maintaining, and repairing all of their own cars vs us drivers bearing that investment and ongoing cost...


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

so we've now downgraded to "sdc's will take you only places they're capable of going" from "sdc's will replace all cars and there won't be any human drivers ever!". 

lol reality slowly trickling into the forecasts.


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## Mole (Mar 9, 2017)

Driver can you go thru the toco bell drive thru or load my luggage or go up the dirt road to the house 1/2 mile away?


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## S7riker (Jun 15, 2017)

68350 said:


> I honestly don't understand why Lyft/Uber would want the enormous overhead of purchasing, maintaining, and repairing all of their own cars vs us drivers bearing that investment and ongoing cost...


hmm let's take a look at this.

Driver receives 75%
Lyft takes 25%

Self driving cars take 0%
Lyft receives 100%

it explains it self, drive full time? better have a new gig by 2025 lol, or the 2020 predictions by some companies.


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## 68350 (May 24, 2017)

That's obvious, but what is their ongoing overhead cost to purchase and maintain a HUGE fleet of their own cars? I'm sure they've done the math of course....

I def do not drive FT, no thank you.


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> lol what they don't realize is that nobody is going to be getting in any of these death traps


The same was said of the first airplanes.


68350 said:


> I honestly don't understand why Lyft/Uber would want the enormous overhead of purchasing, maintaining, and repairing all of their own cars vs us drivers bearing that investment and ongoing cost...


What makes you think that Uber/Lyft will not shift the risk onto 3rd parties as they ave always done, leasing the self-driving cars to 3rd parties like car-rental companies with the experience of maintaining large fleets of cars?


heynow321 said:


> so we've now downgraded to "sdc's will take you only places they're capable of going" from "sdc's will replace all cars and there won't be any human drivers ever!". lol reality slowly trickling into the forecasts.


Both are true! Limited operational area first. Replace all cars much later.


Mole said:


> Driver can you go thru the toco bell drive thru or load my luggage or go up the dirt road to the house 1/2 mile away?


That can be easily handled by a reduced number of human drivers that will charge a premium for such services the SDCs cannot provide.


68350 said:


> That's obvious, but what is their ongoing overhead cost to purchase and maintain a HUGE fleet of their own cars? I'm sure they've done the math of course.... I def do not drive FT, no thank you.


It will not be a HUGE fleet, initially. Bills in Congress estimate a maximum of 25,000 cars nationwide during initial, alpha-testing and 100,000 cars nationwide for first implementation, beta-testing. You can be sure that the math has been done.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

Maven said:


> The same was said of the first airplanes.
> 
> What makes you think that Uber/Lyft will not shift the risk onto 3rd parties as they ave always done, leasing the self-driving cars to 3rd parties like car-rental companies with the experience of maintaining large fleets of cars?
> 
> ...


Planes have pilots.



S7riker said:


> hmm let's take a look at this.
> 
> Driver receives 75%
> Lyft takes 25%
> ...


Given that nobody in their right mind is going to get in a car without a human driver, those cars will be collecting 100% of $0 dollars.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

uberdriverfornow said:


> lol what they don't realize is that nobody is going to be getting in any of these death traps


Unless they want TACOS.



uberdriverfornow said:


> Planes have pilots.
> 
> Given that nobody in their right mind is going to get in a car without a human driver, those cars will be collecting 100% of $0 dollars.


They will be rolling garbage trucks.
They had better make the interriors snap out modules.



68350 said:


> That's obvious, but what is their ongoing overhead cost to purchase and maintain a HUGE fleet of their own cars? I'm sure they've done the math of course....
> 
> I def do not drive FT, no thank you.


10 times what they pay Drivers for use of their cars !


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> Planes have pilots.










These are funnier, if pilotless











uberdriverfornow said:


> Given that nobody in their right mind is going to get in a car without a human driver, those cars will be collecting 100% of $0 dollars.


Who in their right mind would get into a strange car with a perfect stranger and hope to arrive at the proper destination in one piece without getting robbed or worse, even if promised a TACO on arrival?


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

S7riker said:


> hmm let's take a look at this.
> 
> Driver receives 75%
> Lyft takes 25%
> ...


LETS EXAMINE THE REST
DRIVER PAYS 100% of car costs
Lyft pays 0
Driver pays insurance
Driver cleans vehicle
Lyft 0
Driver maintains vehicle
Lyft 0
Driver buys fuel
Lyft 0

Lyft isnt EARNING 25% !

Easy Fix
Dump Lyft.

It is time for drivers to create their own rideshare app.



Maven said:


> The same was said of the first airplanes.
> 
> What makes you think that Uber/Lyft will not shift the risk onto 3rd parties as they ave always done, leasing the self-driving cars to 3rd parties like car-rental companies with the experience of maintaining large fleets of cars?
> 
> ...


Third parties should cut them out.


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## S7riker (Jun 15, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> Given that nobody in their right mind is going to get in a car without a human driver, those cars will be collecting 100% of $0 dollars.


I am within my right mind, planes had the same thing said about them... now millions ride per day, auto cars will become a thing no matter what we say or think, you want a secured future... work in tech not uber or lyft.


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## emdeplam (Jan 13, 2017)

They will go where investor money leads. Billions in cash available to fund auto driving. Much less for a taxi biz


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

tohunt4me said:


> ...It is time for drivers to create their own rideshare app.
> Third parties should cut them out.


You make it sound so easy. Please let us know after you have this set up, probably by the end of the month.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

Maven said:


> These are funnier, if pilotless
> 
> 
> 
> ...


People have been doing it for many years in taxis. Tnc's simply put the request through an app.



S7riker said:


> I am within my right mind, planes had the same thing said about them... now millions ride per day, auto cars will become a thing no matter what we say or think, you want a secured future... work in tech not uber or lyft.


Wrong. Planes have always had human drivers. There are no sdp's ever in existence.

Yeah, how's that sdc gonna load peoples heavy luggage for the entitled pax ?


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## Maven (Feb 9, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> ...Wrong. Planes have always had human drivers. There are no sdp's ever in existence.
> Yeah, how's that sdc gonna load peoples heavy luggage for the entitled pax ?


Pilotless Planes ... closer than you think


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

68350 said:


> I honestly don't understand why Lyft/Uber would want the enormous overhead of purchasing, maintaining, and repairing all of their own cars vs us drivers bearing that investment and ongoing cost...


Because they aren't?



uberdriverfornow said:


> lol what they don't realize is that nobody is going to be getting in any of these death traps


I will be. At least 25% of adults already say they would, so not nobody.



heynow321 said:


> so we've now downgraded to "sdc's will take you only places they're capable of going" from "sdc's will replace all cars and there won't be any human drivers ever!".
> 
> lol reality slowly trickling into the forecasts.


This has always been the plan just as we have mentioned many many times.



Mole said:


> Driver can you go thru the toco bell drive thru


Yes.



Mole said:


> load my luggage


No, but maybe yes later.



Mole said:


> go up the dirt road to the house 1/2 mile away?


No, but definitely yes later.



uberdriverfornow said:


> Planes have pilots.


There are pilot-less planes already. Pilot-less passenger planes are going into testing next year. On modern aircraft the plane is flying itself all but about 6 minutes of a flight and that's only because of regulations, not capabilities.



uberdriverfornow said:


> Given that nobody in their right mind is going to get in a car without a human driver, those cars will be collecting 100% of $0 dollars


I covered this above and many times in the past. You know better.



uberdriverfornow said:


> Wrong. Planes have always had human drivers. There are no sdp's ever in existence.


False. There are and have been for some time.


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## WeirdBob (Jan 2, 2016)

tohunt4me said:


> Unless they want TACOS.


If Trump had not been elected, we wouldn't have to go to Taco Bell for fake Mexican food. We would just have to walk down the block for REAL Mexican food.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/03/...rump-supporters-anti-immigration-warning.html



> "If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner."


Worst. Threat. EVER.


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