Lyft so as to add autonomous shuttles in 2026 as Uber inks extra self-driving offers

Lyft will add autonomous shuttles made by Austrian producer Benteler Group to its community in late 2026, the corporate introduced Friday. The shuttles will likely be deployed in partnership with U.S. cities and airports, in accordance with Lyft, however may increase out from there if issues go properly.

The partnership will let Lyft use city electrical shuttles made by Benteler’s mobility division beneath the Holon model. The shuttles won’t have a steering wheel or pedals and can function inward-facing seats for as much as 9 seated and 6 standing passengers, in accordance with Bloomberg Information, which first reported the Benteler partnership on Friday

The tie-up comes amid a flurry of bulletins from Lyft’s fundamental rival, Uber, which has just lately added robotaxis from Waymo and WeRide in varied cities world wide. Uber can be engaged on including robotaxis from Baidu, Pony AI, Momenta, Might Mobility, Volkswagen, Wayve, and simply final week introduced a take care of Nuro and Lucid Motors.

Regardless of years of testing with varied companions, Lyft continues to be engaged on including autonomous automobiles to its personal fleet of automobiles. The corporate plans to place AVs from Might Mobility on its community in Atlanta later this yr. It’s additionally working with autonomy supplier Mobileye, although it’s not clear who would make these automobiles.

Mobileye’s tech is what powers the Holon shuttles, although Lyft instructed Bloomberg that these aren’t the identical offers.