Lyft and Waymo are now partnering up to bring the famed robotaxi service from Alphabet to Nashville, Tennessee, starting next year.
Waymo’s expansion sets its sights on Nashville as the next area to deliver its robotaxi service, with self-driving Jaguar I-Pace electric cars roaming the streets soon.
The company is planning to start testing its autonomous fleet in the city starting later this year, and this will help build up the service for public use in time for its next year’s target launch.
Lyft, Waymo Partner Up to Launch Robotaxi in Nashville
Lyft and Waymo shared a new announcement which confirms their latest partnership that will bring a robotaxi service via the ride-hailing platform, choosing Nashville as its first service area.
According to Waymo’s blog post, the collaboration brings the first autonomous ride-hailing service to America’s Music City and will feature its scalable, fully autonomous robotaxi service.
Waymo’s arrival in Nashville marks its tenth city in the country where its robotaxi service will be available. The company already has an existing service actively offering rides in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Austin, and Phoenix.
Previously, Waymo has announced its expansion to more major US cities, including Dallas, Denver, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
Lyft is the second ride-hailing platform that Waymo partnered up with to share its autonomous robotaxi fleet, with Uber being the first. Their service has already launched in Atlanta and Austin.
Nashville’s Robotaxi Coming in 2026
According to Lyft, the autonomous ride-hailing service partnership with Waymo will be under the company’s subsidiary known as Flexdrive, and it will be responsible for operations in the Nashville area. Flexdrive will focus on end-to-end fleet management, vehicle maintenance, infrastructure, and depot operations for the Waymo Jaguar I-Pace EVs in the Music City.
The ride-hailing company said that users in Nashville will first be able to book rides on the Waymo app. Later on, the Waymo One autonomous rides will be available under Lyft’s network, and it will help match rides for Lyft users in the area by 2026.
It remains unconfirmed as of press time when Waymo and Lyft will start their robotaxi testing operations in the Nashville area later this year. Both companies have not yet confirmed the public launch of the autonomous service for next year.
Originally published on Tech Times
