The ride-sharing company Lyft said Monday it plans to roll out a full self-driving robotaxi service in Dallas next year. The announcement comes as rival Uber plans to launch its self-driving taxi service with Google's Waymo cars in Austin, Texas, next month.

What You Need To Know

  • The ride-sharing company Lyft said Monday that it plans to roll out a full self-driving robotaxi service in Dallas next year

  • Rival Uber plans to launch its self-driving taxi service with Google's Waymo cars in Austin, Texas, next month

  • Lyft's robotaxi fleet will be owned by the Japanese auto-financing company, Marubeni

  • It is unclear which vehicles will be used for the service, but the cars will be equipped with autonomous driving technology provided by the Israeli company Mobileye

“The more [autonomous vehicles] out there, the more the rideshare market expands,” Lyft CEO David Risher wrote on X on Monday. “It’s all part of our promise to serve and connect.”

The cars will be owned by the Japanese auto-financing company, Marubeni, which Risher described as “a major global player in fleet ownership.” It is unclear which vehicles will be used for the service, but the cars will be equipped with autonomous driving technology provided by the Israeli company Mobileye.

On Monday, Tesla also announced plans to launch a paid robotaxi service in Austin in June. 

Waymo is the leading company that currently operates an autonomous ride-hailing service in the U.S., offering trips in Austin, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco. Last month, the Google subsidiary said it plans to expand its self-driving vehicle tests to at least 10 more cities this year, including Las Vegas, San Diego and upstate New York.

Following Dallas, Risher said Lyft also plans to expand with “thousands more AVs/other cities to follow.”