Lyft users in Miami and Austin could soon be able to hail self-driving Ford vehicles powered by Argo AI’s technology, as part of the companies’ work to commercialize autonomous systems.
Argo AI said the companies will offer Lyft users the option of riding in a self-driving vehicle in Miami later this year; the program is set to expand to Austin sometime in 2022. The hailed vehicles will still have a “safety driver,” however, likely because of local regulations.
“This initial deployment phase will lay the groundwork for scaling operations,” Argo AI said, “as the parties are now working to finalize agreements aiming to deploy at least 1,000 autonomous vehicles on the Lyft network, across multiple markets over the next five years.”
The company also said it “will use anonymized service and fleet data from Lyft to overcome the challenges faced by other autonomous vehicle companies by focusing on where they can build a sustainable business and validate deployment through localized safety data.”
This announcement is part of the broader effort to deploy autonomous vehicles at scale. Organizations have used self-driving vehicles to deliver everything from pizzas to COVID-19 tests, for example, and experimented with autonomous rescue aircraft and mail delivery trucks.
Manufacturers have also started to incorporate self-driving technologies in consumer vehicles. Tesla, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Toyota, and others have all confirmed that they’re at least exploring the possibility of autonomous driving features in their cars. (If they don’t offer them already.)
The partnership between Argo AI, Ford, and Lyft effectively straddles the two categories. It wouldn’t happen on the infrastructure level, like those bringing autonomous vehicles to delivery networks or shipping companies, but it wouldn’t be restricted to personal vehicles either.
The news comes as Lyft and Uber drivers today strike in a bid to get lawmakers to move on the Protect the Right to Organize Act, which would allow gig drivers to unionize, the LA Times reports. The National Day of Action, organized by Rideshare Drivers United, could see fewer drivers on the road in LA, San Francisco, San Diego, Austin, Boston, Cleveland, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh, Denver, and Baltimore, the group says.
