Lyft opens its first European office in Munich

Ride-hailing firm Lyft has announced its first office in Munich, Germany. The company said that the hub’s main focus will be self-driving vehicles, with a “talented group of new colleagues” working on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for level 5 autonomous cars — or vehicles with full driverless autonomy.

Lyft said in a blog post, "This team will build the layer of software that helps our self-driving cars know precisely where they are and what’s around them.”

Lyft is opening the office at a time when Uber, which operates in several European cities including Munich, is facing a series of civil lawsuits and legal battles. It is not clear why Lyft chose Munich, but Munich offers close proximity to a major automotive company that is known to be investing heavily in self-driving cars.

The company hasn’t stated how many employees it intends to hire in the new office.