After years of single-minded focus on developing the technology for automated vehicles, the companies pushing to make self-driving cars a reality are now devoting more attention to the human beings who will ride in them. Over the past six months, both Volvo and Waymo have launched projects designed to examine how ordinary motorists use self-driving technology. Now, ride-hailing service Lyft and autonomous-vehicle software provider nuTonomy announced they have embarked on a similar project.
Executives from the two companies said they?re forming a research-and-development partnership to explore the user experience of autonomous vehicles employed in ride-sharing roles. Their work will cover the entire ride, from the moment a user opens a ride-hailing app on a personal device through the time a passenger exits a vehicle. ?There will be changes to the Lyft app, and a handful of things that will work very differently when you?re not just giving verbal instructions to a driver,? Lyft co-founder and chief executive officer Logan Green said. ?We will be extending the Lyft app experience into the vehicle, and we think this will be a unique part of the experience.?

Work begins immediately in Boston, where nuTonomy has been testing fully automated vehicles since November 2016. For now, the tests are confined to that city?s Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park and two adjacent neighborhoods. An engineer from nuTonomy will ride in each test vehicle to observe and will take control if necessar...