Lyft will add autonomous shuttles made by Austrian producer Benteler Group to its community in late 2026, the corporate announced Friday. The shuttles might be deployed in partnership with U.S. cities and airports, based on Lyft, however might increase out from there if issues go nicely.
The partnership will let Lyft use urban electric shuttles made by Benteler’s mobility division underneath the Holon model. The shuttles won’t have a steering wheel or pedals and can function inward-facing seats for as much as 9 seated and 6 standing passengers, based on Bloomberg Information, which first reported the Benteler partnership on Friday.
The tie-up comes amid a flurry of bulletins from Lyft’s most important rival, Uber, which has not too long ago added robotaxis from Waymo and WeRide in varied cities world wide. Uber can be engaged on including robotaxis from Baidu, Pony AI, Momenta, May Mobility, Volkswagen, and Wayve, and simply final week introduced a take care of Nuro and Lucid Motors.
Regardless of years of testing with varied companions, Lyft continues to be engaged on including autonomous automobiles to its personal fleet of automobiles. The corporate plans to place AVs from Could Mobility on its network in Atlanta later this year. It’s additionally working with autonomy provider Mobileye, although it’s not clear who would make these automobiles.
Mobileye’s tech is what powers the Holon shuttles, although Lyft instructed Bloomberg that these aren’t the identical offers.