10 Waymo Self-Driving Vehicles in Phoenix Each to Have ‘Safety Driver,’ Says Lyft

Lyft expects about 10 Waymo self-driving vehicles to be cruising the streets of metropolitan Phoenix by the end of Q3 “that will serve thousands of Lyft passengers over time,” said Lyft President John Zimmer on a Q1 call Tuesday. Each will have a “safety driver,” he said. “This is the first time that Waymo is providing self-driving vehicles to a partner outside of their own service.” The partnership is one of “two pieces” of Lyft’s autonomous-vehicle strategy, said Zimmer. Its own “Level 5 group” puts Lyft in a “great position, given our platform, our access to data and an amazing talented team, to build our own self-driving components,” he said. “Our first-party system can benefit the existing business even before there’s autonomous vehicles” on the road through better mapping and “higher utilization and efficiency in the marketplace,” he said. “We are agnostic to where this technology comes from.” Waymo is a “phenomenal partner with leading AV technology,” but it “doesn’t affect the other relationships that we have,” he said.