Lyft inks another self-driving tech partnership with Jaguar Land Rover

Next time you want to ride in Jaguar or a Land Rover to visit your nearest cafe, book a cab from Lyft. Nope, we are not kidding!

Coming one-step closer to its vision of having a self-driving fleet by 2021, Lyft has roped in one more partner to its long list of associates. After General Motors, Waymo, nuTonomy, now the company has teamed up with the UK-based automaker, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) that has invested a whopping $25 million through Inmotion, its mobility services business.

Sebastian Peck, InMotion Managing Director, said, "The collaboration will provide a real-world platform helping us develop our connected and autonomous services."

Under the deal, JLR will provide Lyft drivers with a fleet of cars, and in return will use Lyft's new Open Platform to help develop its self-driving tech. In addition, JLR will be allowed to test its autonomous vehicles on Lyft’s ride-hailing network. The automaker has been testing its autonomous research vehicles on a 44-mile stretch near its headquarters in Coventry.

The latest news comes on heels of the Lyft signing a partnership deal with Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo and Boston-based nuTonomy. John Zimmer, Lyft’s co-founder and the president, said, “Different partners have different skill sets, and this is such a big opportunity. Broadly speaking, it’s going to play out over the next five to ten years, and it’s critical that we have multiple partners in various spaces and geographies.”

Lyft isn't the only one that has been catching all the striking partnership deals in the autonomous technology world. In fact, Lyft and its arch-rival Uber, share same investors. Last year, Jaguar invested US$100 million in Uber, and they formed a financing partnership in India. General Motors Co., which is a major Lyft investor and partner, has also started working with Uber. Uber partnered with Volvo to purchase 100 cars with the purpose of equipping them with the company’s autonomous hardware. The company also joined forces with German auto giant Daimler on the deployment of self-driving cars.

Recently, Uber also partnered with Volvo to purchase 100 cars with the purpose of equipping them with the company’s autonomous hardware. The company also joined forces with German auto giant Daimler on the deployment of self-driving cars.

However, unlike Uber, Lyft is allowing companies like GM, Waymo, NuTonomy, and now JLR, to test their vehicles on its platform, instead of developing its own software. It seems like the company is just focusing on its main strength, its ride-hailing service.