Jaguar Land Rover is the latest automaker to enter the autonomous vehicle testing fray.
The British luxury brand’s InMotion Ventures mobility services company announced a $25 million investment yesterday into expanding Lyft’s technology plans, allowing the ride-hailing company to test self-driving cars. As part of the partnership, Lyft gets a fleet of Jaguar and Land Rover models to conduct testing of mobility services and autonomous vehicles.
Lyft is no stranger to partnering with automakers on self-driving and ride-sharing services.
The startup teamed up with General Motors, which supplied Lyft with thousands of self-driving capable Chevrolet Bolt EV test vehicles. Those autonomous Bolt EVs have already been deployed in Scottsdale, Arizona, San Francisco and Detroit.
The startup ride-sharing company has been busy partnering with new collaborators on self-driving technology. Last month, Lyft partnered with Google’s Waymo, which will share its autonomous technology with the San Francisco-based ride-sharing company. Just last week, Lyft also partnered with nuTonomy, a developer of autonomous vehicle software. The two will collaborate on autonomous EV testing already taking place in Boston. Their combined research will explore the feasibility of a self-driving mobility-on-demand service.
For Jaguar Land Rover’s InMotion Venture capital wing, this is the second investment in Lyft technology, after an investment in SPLT earlier this year. SPLT, a startup digital carpool business, will work with Lyft to provide non-emergency medical transport in and around the Detroit area.
Lyft’s direct competitor Uber has also partnered with a luxury automaker to provide SUVs for autonomous testing. The ride-hailing company partnered with Volvo last year to provide Uber with self-driving XC90 SUVs to conduct testing in Arizona and Pittsburgh.
It would appear that Lyft’s ability to easily bring on automotive partners has mostly to do with its rival company’s ongoing troubles, according to TechCrunch. As Uber fights through lawsuits related to stolen patents, sexual harassment claims and law enforcement-evading software, as well as failing to secure the required permits to conduct autonomous vehicle testing on California roads, the company does not currently appear to be an appealing business partner in juxtaposition to Lyft.
