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Lyft sells its self-driving unit to Toyota for $ 550 million, another example of excited hopes among travel-sharing groups hoping to build a robotaxi network.
The agreement expands Toyota’s effort to go beyond pure vehicle manufacturing to other “mobility services.”
Lyft president John Zimmer predicted in 2016 that driverless cars “will be responsible for the engine most trips to Lyft within five years ”, but the prediction was very broad. Zimmer also predicted that by 2025 “private vehicle ownership will almost end in major U.S. cities.”
In February last year, Lyft offered more 100,000 “Paid autonomous driving trips,” enough to claim to host “the largest public trading platform in the U.S.,” but a safety driver was always sitting behind the wheel and Lyft struggled to get to the next stage.
Lyft’s departure closely follows that of Uber, its American rival, which in December abandoned the internal effort of 1,200 people to build a driverless car and he paid his rival Aurora $ 400 million to take over the business. Uber maintains a stake.
Toyota said Monday it would pay Lyft $ 200 million in advance to take over the autonomous unit, a 300-person group called “Level 5” – an ambitious benchmark for completing autonomy regardless of climate or geography – and had agreed to pay $ 350 plus m over five years.
The unit will be doubled in Toyota’s new Woven Planet division, which says it is “on a mission to design a happier planet. . .[by]transforming the way people live, move and play through new innovations and investments in automated driving, robotics, smart cities and much more ”.
Woven Planet houses Toyota Guardian, which creates advanced driver assistance technology, and Toyota Chauffeur, focused on full autonomy.
The Japanese group has been cautious about the deployment of its own autonomous driving technology. Earlier this month it launched a Lexus with “Level 2” autonomous driving capabilities that includes features such as changing lanes.
It had previously planned to unveil a “Level 4” mobility service van that would allow completely driverless operations on predefined routes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but was postponed until later this year due to the pandemic.
Toyota has a minority stake in Aurora, having previously invested in Uber’s autonomous driving unit, and in February said it would partner with Aurora in the launch of driverless cars.
James Kuffner, CEO of Woven Planet, did not address any potential conflicts between the acquisition of Lyft’s business and its agreement with Aurora. Nor did it offer any projection of when the technology could become mainstream.
But he said the acquisition “brings together a dream team” of engineers and scientists.
For Lyft, a public company since June 2019, the deal eliminates $ 100 million in annual operating expenses and should “accelerate Lyft’s path” to the promised goal of achieving the “adjusted profitability of the Ebitda, ”the company said.
Lyft still believes in a self-sufficient future, but its efforts will be redirected toward vehicle manufacturing and toward the deployment and scaling of “third-party” technology to its network, said Logan Green, chief executive.
“We look forward to continuing to work with the best autonomous vehicle companies to bring this technology to market,” Green said.
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