Robocabs are finally here as Waymo starts offering driverless taxi rides to Lyft customers

Robocabs are finally here as it was revealed in The Telegraph that Waymo and Lyft have joined forces and are offering journeys in driverless cabs. 

Lyft, who are Ubers main rival in the US, revealed last Tuesday that its revenues had nearly double in the first quarter of the year, but continued to make heavy losses.

The tie-up will see Waymo deploy 10 driverless vehicles across Phoenix, Arizona, with Lyft being the chosen platform to hail one of the cabs.

The timing of the announcement comes just a few days before Uber launch their IPO.

Waymo, widely regarded as the market leader in autonomous technology, became an off-shoot of Google in 2016.

At thw moment, Lyft operate only in US, and have a smaller revenue stream than Uber, which means resources to research driverless cars are at a premium. However, it has sought alliances with companies such as Waymo and Aptiv, which has been testing across Las Vegas. Uber, meanwhile, has largely focused on developing its own technology, although it was forced to put testing on hold last year when one of its driverless vehicles hit and killed a pedestrian in Arizona.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Image Author Steve Jurvetson