Lyft, Magna International team up for self-driving car system

The ride-hailing service Lyft has agreed to alliances with just about anyone working on driverless car technology. Its latest partnership aims to make its autonomous vehicle technology available to any car manufacturer. Lyft said Wednesday it had reached a deal with Magna Internation-al, one of the world’s biggest auto suppliers, to jointly develop and manufacture self-driving car systems.
 
The companies said they will work together to introduce autonomous vehicles to Lyft’s ride-hailing network. At the same time, Magna can sell the driverless-car technology to any customer — including other technology companies.
 
Magna also said it would invest $200 million in Lyft’s latest fund-raising round, lifting the San Francisco-based company’s valuation to $11.7 billion. The tie-up reflects Lyft’s open-arms approach to autonomous vehicles.

 

Lyft has opened its ride-hailing network to other companies working on self-driving cars, including Ford and General Motors, a major Lyft investor, so they can gain real-world experience by picking up passengers and collecting data.
 
Uber, Lyft’s main rival, has been developing self-driving technology mostly on its own. Waymo, a Lyft partner, is slowly introducing its own ride-hailing service using autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans equipped with Waymo’s own hardware and software. 
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