Automotive supplier Magna and rideshare company Lyft have announced a multi-year partnership to fund, develop and manufacture self-driving systems. Lyft will lead the development at its Palo Alto, California-based self-driving engineering centre; Magna will lead manufacturing, and join Lyft on-site for development, contributing its knowledge of vehicle systems, safety and ADAS.
Magna also plans to invest US$200m in Lyft equity. The establishment of this partnership is subject to regulatory approval; if approval is granted, the scalable technology is expected to be market-ready over the next few years and can be deployed across the industry.
This partnership positions Magna and Lyft to enable the development and manufacturing of self-driving systems at scale. The self-driving vehicles will be deployed on Lyft’s ridesharing network in the coming years.
“There is a new mobility landscape emerging and partnerships like this put us at the forefront of this change,” said Swamy Kotagiri, Magna’s chief technology officer. “Lyft’s leadership in ridesharing and Magna’s automotive expertise makes this strategic partnership ideal to effect a positive change as a new transportation ecosystem unfolds.”
“Together with Magna, we will accelerate the introduction of self-driving vehicles by sharing our technology with automotive OEMs worldwide,” said Lyft CEO Logan Green. “This is an entirely new approach that will democratize access to this transformative technology.”
