Lyft teams up with Magna to build self-driving cars

Lyft has partnered automotive supplier, Magna to develop autonomous vehicle technology. Lyft and Magna will share the intellectual property from co-developing autonomous vehicles, and Magna will be free to sell the technology to car companies.

Magna has also made a $200 million equity investment in Lyft, extending the ride-hailing company’s most recent financing round to $1.7 billion.

Under the partnership, Lyft will lead the development, while Magna will take charge of manufacturing as well as contribute its know-how in vehicle systems, driver assistance and safety. The autonomous vehicles that Lyft and Magna will be working together to build will be Level 4, meaning they will be able to operate without any human intervention within the car’s normal operating parameters.

Lyft and Magna haven't given any timeline for when we might see the results of this partnership put into practice, in testing or in production, but Magna noted in a press release detailing the news that it should be “market-ready over the next few years.”

Lyft already has a number of tie-ups to bring self-driving cars to its platform. It has agreements with Alphabet self-driving car unit Waymo and with Ford Motor. Besides, General Motors is a major investor in the San Francisco-based ride-hailing company. Magna, on the other hand, is a member of a consortium including BMW, Mobileye, and Intel to develop a self-driving vehicle platform for automakers by 2020. The company builds a variety of auto parts and in-car technology, from mirrors to powertrains to advanced driver assist systems. Magna’s major customers include Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, and Toyota.