Instead of going it alone on self-driving cars, Lyft has made a point of striking partnerships. Its latest is with Magna, a giant automotive industry supplier.
- Lyft on Wednesday announced a partnership with automotive components supplier Magna to develop self-driving car technology.
- As part of the deal, Magna is investing $200 million in Lyft.
- Magna is just one of several companies with which Lyft is working on autonomous vehicles.
Lyft has a big new partner in its effort to developer self-driving cars — Magna, one of the automotive industry's top-tier component manufacturers.
The companies announced Wednesday they are working together to speed the deployment of autonomous vehicles on Lyft's network. Lyft will lead the development of the autonomous vehicle systems, while Magna will head up the manufacturing of the parts.
Magna is investing $200 million in Lyft as part of the multiyear partnership.
"There is a new mobility landscape emerging and partnerships like this put us at the forefront of this change," Swamy Kotagiri, Magna's chief technology officer, said in a statement.
Although Magna is developing the self-driving technology with Lyft, the parts supplier will be able to offer it to other companies.
The companies declined to say when they expected to the first cars with their technology to be in use. In their press statement, they said they expected the system to be "market-ready" in "the next few years."
Lyft and Magna are among numerous companies developing self-driving car technology. Others include: Uber, General Motors, and Waymo, a Google spinoff.
Many of the companies developing autonomous vehicle technology are largely doing it themselves. But Lyft has been aggressive about teaming up with other companies in its own effort. Last summer, it opened a self-driving car research lab in Palo Alto, California that included space for partners including Waymo; General Motors; nuTonomy; an autonomous vehicle startup out of MIT.
As part of a demonstration of its technology, Lyft offered rides in an autonomous vehicle at the CES trade show in Las Vegas in January. Attendees could summon the vehicle with Lyft's app.