Ford, Lyft Partner On Making Autonomous Cars Mainstream

Ford is lifting its autonomous cars development into higher level by announcing a new partnership with transportation networking company Lyft. The cooperation will help both companies "progress toward a more affordable, dependable, and accessible transportation future."

Lyft is seen as a strategic partner for self-driving cars by Ford with its "network of customers, growing demand for rides, and strong knowledge of transportation flow within cities." Combining that with the Blue oval's "experience with autonomous vehicle technology development and large scale manufacturing" should result in faster autonomous cars development and integration into the traffic.

Ford and Lyft will work together to create a technology platform that can easily connect with partner's platform to "effectively dispatch a self-driving vehicle." Also, the two companies will determine which cities to work with to deliver a self-driving vehicle service based on shared data and information.

During the development process of a joint platform, Ford will launch human-driven test vehicles in Lyft's network to ensure the technology is compatible with Lyft's application and customer-facing platform. The automaker says engineers and specialists from both companies are already working together, programming systems so they can communicate with one another without impacting users of the Lyft app.

The next step will be deploying self-driving vehicles connected to Lyft's network. Those cars won't be available for customer use, but will allow Ford to "develop the technology and ensure a positive, reassuring experience is achieved for future users." Ultimately, Ford wants to have autonomous cars operating alongside Lyft's current community of drivers to "help accommodate times of significant consumer demand to ensure that transportation remains timely and affordable."