Ford and Lyft team up to bring driverless cars to the public
The partnership plans to deploy self-driving vehicles on roads ‘by 2021’

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Ford has announced that it will partner with ride-hailing service Lyft to bring its self-driving cars “to the masses”.
The companies “will begin working together to design software to allow Ford vehicles to communicate with Lyft’s smartphone apps”, Reuters reports, with the aim of placing “self-driving vehicles on the ride services company’s network in large numbers by 2021”.
However, Ford’s autonomous vehicle chief Sherif Marakby told the news agency the company’s driverless cars will be connected to Lyft’s service but customers won’t be able to use them immediately.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Instead, Reuters says “Ford will put human-driven vehicles on Lyft’s network” in the early phase of the scheme, which the carmaker announced on Medium.
The two firms will share data with each other “to figure out the best cities to launch a ride-hailing fleet full of autonomous vehicles”, says Engadget, “as well as to conjure up the framework necessary to maintain that fleet”.
The partnership’s “end goal is to give passengers a way to hail self-driving cars as easily as they would a normal one”, the site says.
Fortune says Lyft released an “open platform designed to give automakers and tech companies working on self-driving cars access to its ride-sharing network of nearly one million rides per day” earlier this year.
As well as Ford, the ride-hailing company has partnered with General Motors and Waymo – the driverless car division set up by Google’s parent company Alphabet.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
The daily gossip: Travis Kelce chats about Taylor Swift's Chiefs game visit, Hollywood writers thrilled with details of new contract as strike ends, and more
The daily gossip: September 27, 2023
By Brendan Morrow Published
-
The Trump Organization is over
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
Corrupted Ukraine
Cartoons
By The Week Staff Published
-
Sport on TV guide: Christmas 2022 and New Year listings
Speed Read Enjoy a feast of sporting action with football, darts, rugby union, racing, NFL and NBA
By Mike Starling Published
-
Ford Fiesta 2022 review: what the car critics say
feature The Fiesta remains the ‘best car in its class to drive’ – by some margin
By The Week Staff Published
-
House of the Dragon: what to expect from the Game of Thrones prequel
Speed Read Ten-part series, set 200 years before GoT, will show the incestuous decline of Targaryen
By Chas Newkey-Burden Published
-
Ford Focus review: after 25 years it still impresses
feature Fun and engaging to drive, the Focus has been treated to a mid-life update
By The Week Staff Published
-
One in 20 young Americans identify as trans or non-binary
Speed Read New research suggests that 44% of US adults know someone who is transgender
By The Week Staff Published
-
The Turner Prize 2022: a ‘vintage’ shortlist?
Speed Read All four artists look towards ‘growth, revival and reinvention’ in their work
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Ford Kuga FHEV reviews: what the car critics say
feature At an affordable price, the Kuga delivers on its potential as an efficient family SUV
By The Week Staff Published
-
What’s on TV this Christmas? The best holiday television
Speed Read From films and documentaries to musicals for all the family
By The Week Staff Published