Lyft and Waymo are partnering to bring robotaxis to Nashville | TechCrunch

Waymo has reached an agreement with ride-hailing company Lyft to launch a Robotaxi service in Nashville in 2026.

The company said Wednesday it will begin testing the Nashville-area all-electric and automatic Thousand Knights i-pace fleet in the coming months and will open services to the public next year.

The partnership agreement announced Wednesday is as Waymo expands from its initial Phoenix commercial market to its initial commercial markets in Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Alphabet-owned company has previously announced plans to bring its robots to Miami Washington, DCDallas and Denver.

The deal also demonstrates Waymo’s desire to surpass the sole operator and become a provider of self-driving car technology. Earlier this year, Waymo launched the Robotaxi service with Uber of Atlanta and Austin. Under the arrangement, Waymo is responsible for certain aspects of vehicle testing, roadside assistance and rider support, while Uber manages fleet services such as vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspection, charging and warehouses through a company called Moove Cars.

Waymo and Lyft have similar arrangements in Nashville. Lyft will also handle fleet services such as vehicle preparation and maintenance, infrastructure and warehouse operations through its wholly owned subsidiary FlexDrive. Lyft said it is investing in specially built AV facilities to support fleets.

Nashville’s Waymo-Loff partnership has a key difference with the company’s relationship with Atlanta and Austin Uber. In Nashville, Robotaxi customers will be able to access Robotaxis in two ways. Users will initially hail directly through the Waymo app. Once the service has expanded, Waymo will also dispatch its self-driving cars for matching rides on the Lyft app.

This is different from Uber with Atlanta and Austin. In these cities, all prospects must use Uber apps in order to match robots, not human drivers.

Lyft and Waymo have worked with it before, although it has never been done on a large scale. In 2019, Waymo Link to Lyft As the company strengthens its commercial robotics services, bringing a small number of autonomous vehicles to the ride network in Phoenix.