General Motors announced earlier this year that it’s making a $500 million investment in Lyft and that the two companies will work together on self-driving cars. Both companies are also collaborating on a car rental program for people who don’t own a car but would like to drive for Lyft. GM is taking this partnership one step further with its intention of using the Lyft platform to launch its first all-electric self-driving car.
GM’s chief engineer of self-driving technology Pam Fletcher told Tech Insider that the company is going to launch its first self-driving car on the Lyft platform. Despite confirming this crucial detail Fletcher did not confirm how long it will take for this launch to happen.
She did say that this all-electric self-driving car is going to be available on Lyft sooner than many of us expect. “We have not made that announcement yet, but what I would say is this is all coming much faster than people anticipate, so I’ll say that much,” Fletcher said.
GM already has an all-electric car in advanced testing stage. The Bolt is its long-range electric vehicle that’s going to take on the Tesla Model 3. It’s unclear at this point whether GM’s first self-driving car is a modified version of the Bolt or if it’s a new electric car altogether that just happens to be capable of driving itself.
Filed in . Read more about Electric Cars, General Motors, Lyft and Self-Driving Cars. Source: businessinsider