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GM and Lyft To Test Elimination Of Taxi Drivers With Bolt EV Autonomous Taxi


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2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV And Soon To Be Lyft Cab (Without a driver)

See Also:Tra La La - Official Google FCA Partnership Announcement

Editor's Note: I am sad to learn of technology's attack on hardworking Cabbies. During late night and very early morning cab rides I have always felt more secure with my taxi driver watching me enter into my destination...maybe there is an R2Dr type robot in the driver-less cab future (if there really is one).

Detroit MI May 5, 2016; GM and Lyft plan to begin putting driverless EV cabs to the test. According to The Wall Street Journal Lyft will put their soon to be built driver-less Chevrolet Bolts on the road in a yet-to-be-named city, where they'll actually be picking up Lyft passengers.

The plan relies on GM's March billion dollar purchase of Cruise Automation, a three-year-old autonomous car startup (with happy owners, that it purchased in March.


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General Motors President Dan Ammann (right) with Cruise Automation co-founders Kyle Vogt (center) and Daniel Kan (left).

Lyft product director Taggart Matthiesen said to WSJ reporters that "We will want to vet the autonomous tech between Cruise, GM, and ourselves and slowly introduce this into markets,"

Beyond that, there aren't any other details on what Lyft and GM are planning — apparently decisions are still being made. But the intention of this plan is clear: both companies are moving aggressively to get a place in what's likely to be an enormous market of self-driving cabs. Lyft has to contend with Uber, which is building its own autonomous vehicles, and GM has to compete with other car companies all hoping that they can profit from Silicon Valley's self serving promotion of robot controlled cars.

In addition to rolling out self-driving EV Bolts, GM also intends to begin renting out standard versions of the electric car to Lyft drivers, according to the Journal. GM and Lyft have already partnered to rent out the Chevy Equinox, but the program is now due to expand using the Bolt, which has more room for passengers.