Ride-sharing Lyft teamed up with self-driving technology company Aptiv to demonstrate autonomous driving at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 in Las Vegas last week. The pilot program involved BMWs retrofitted with all of the kit required for autonomous driving. The cars were available for on-demand rides to up to 20 selected destinations within Las Vegas. The pilot program was reportedly a success which is probably why Lyft and Aptiv are now expanding this partnership.
Both companies have announced that they’re expanding this self-driving project beyond the timeframe of CES 2018 in Las Vegas. They’re in talks to launch a second pilot program of this sort in a different market in the United States.
They’ve clearly been encouraged by the success of the pilot in Las Vegas during one of the busiest convention weeks in the city. Lyft and Aptiv provided more than 400 autonomous rides to the public across five days.
99 percent of the miles that were driven were in fully autonomous mode, according to Aptiv, which added that the rides received a combined rating of 4.997 from passengers.
Lyft and Aptiv have yet to provide detailed information on precisely how they’re planning to take this partnership forward. Hopefully, they will do so in the near future.