Within the next eight years, executives from the ride-hailing service Lyft say, they?ll be delivering a billion rides per year. But those will all be in autonomous vehicles. Considering that such vehicles aren?t even deployed on the road right now, aside from pilot projects, that?s an ambitious vision for such a tight timeframe. Lyft has taken steps toward making it happen, though, announcing plans to build its own autonomous technology at a new lab located in Palo Alto, California.
The new self-driving division will consist of hundreds of employees dedicated to creating a complete self-driving software and hardware kit that can be integrated into vehicles provided by partners. Lyft already has inked partnership deals with the likes of Waymo, nuTonomy, General Motors, and Jaguar Land Rover. Should its efforts to develop the technology prove successful, Lyft might have an edge in the marketplace because it could provide both software and a massive network of riders, while partnering on vehicle production. This development was announced while the company?s chief rival in the ride-hailing business, Uber, struggles to advance its own self-driving tech and contends with a lawsuit over trade secrets that were allegedly stolen from Waymo.

?
?They?d have to be starting from scratch at this point. I think Lyft is big enough to do that, but I?m not sure what the business case is for them to do this part of it.?

? Sam Abuelsamid, Navigant Research
?

Lyft is embarking on this in-...