Driverless taxis could be transiting Dallas streets as early as next year thanks to a partnership between Lyft Inc. and Mobileye Global Inc., a spinoff from Intel Corp.
Mobileye will supply the components enabling the vehicles to cruise Dallas streets autonomously. Tokyo-based auto and fleet financing company Marubeni Corp. will provide the vehicles themselves. Ultimately, Lyft intends to scale its driverless fleet to thousands of cars in other cities.
Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft’s rival, has already been offering autonomous rides in Phoenix since 2003 through its partnership with Waymo LLC. The company plans to expand the program, providing driverless rides in Austin starting next month. Tesla also plans to launch its driverless taxi offering in Austin beginning in June.
Wall Street took Lyft’s announcement positively, sending shares of the company as much as 7.2% higher following the market opening. Mobileye fared even better, with its stock price spiking as much as 18%.
According to Lyft CEO David Risher, Marubeni manages over 900,000 vehicles directly and indirectly. Lyft will tap into this collection when it brings autonomous rides to the streets of Dallas.
“The more AVs out there, the more the rideshare market expands. It’s all part of our promise to serve and connect, and we’re excited to have Marubeni along for the ride,” Risher posted on social media platform X on February 10.
“We’ll have more to share in the coming months, so stay tuned!”
Lyft’s partner, Mobileye, has already integrated its tech into vehicles made by General Motors, Volkswagen, Ford, Nissan, and others.
“Mobileye has been around for more than 20 years and is a global leader in advanced driver assist systems,” Sam Abuelsamid, vice president of market research at Albuquerque-based Telemetry Insight, maker of AI-supported analytic tools, told Tech News World.
“Most cars on the road have some sort of forward collision alert or lane-keeping assist system based on Mobileye technology,” he said.
Lyft has not indicated how many driverless vehicles it anticipates debuting in Dallas, but Risher said in a social media post that, following the Dallas launch, there will be “thousands more AVs/other cities to follow.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the city has emerged as a leading market for testing new driverless freight solutions. Last year, self-driving trucks traveled more than 400,000 miles between Dallas, Houston, and El Paso as part of the company Aurora’s driverless trucking program.