In an obvious try to maintain tempo with its rival Uber, ride-hailing service Lyft plans to launch a fleet of robotaxis in Dallas “as soon as 2026.”
According to a report Monday in TechSwitch, the brand new robocabs shall be powered by Mobileye know-how whereas Marubeni, a Japanese conglomerate, will carry out fleet administration. When operational, experience seekers will be capable of hail a robotaxi via Lyft’s app.
Although Lyft hasn’t revealed the carmaker for this system, TechSwitch famous that Mobileye know-how is already built-in into automobiles made by Ford, General Motors, Audi, Volkswagen, Nissan, and others.
“Mobileye has been around for more than 20 years and is a global leader in advanced driver assist systems,” famous Sam Abuelsamid, vp of market analysis at Telemetry Insights, a Detroit-based transportation analysis and advisory firm.
“Most cars on the road have some sort of forward collision alert or lane-keeping assist system based on Mobileye technology,” he advised TechNewsWorld.
While Lyft hasn’t revealed what number of automobiles it should launch in Dallas, its Executive Vice President of Driver Experience, Jeremy Bird, advised TechSwitch that the corporate plans to scale to 1000’s of automobiles throughout a number of cities after the Texas debut.
Lyft rival Uber has already introduced it’s teaming up with Waymo to supply robotaxi companies in Austin and Atlanta. Meanwhile, Tesla plans to launch an autonomous ride-hail providing in Austin in June.
Lyft’s Asset-Light Strategy for Robotaxis
“Lyft’s initiative is likely in response to Uber, which has made aggressive moves to form partnerships for autonomous vehicles,” stated Edward Sanchez, a senior analyst within the automotive observe of TechInsights, a worldwide know-how intelligence firm.
He famous that Lyft’s “asset-light” method to operations explains its partnership with Marubeni. “Lyft, like Uber, is taking a somewhat incremental approach to commercializing robotaxi service,” Sanchez advised TechNewsWorld.
He identified that Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has stated full-scale robotaxi commercialization shall be a longer-term pursuit because of the excessive present value of autonomous automobiles — usually greater than US$200,000 — and presently increased operational prices than human-driven automobiles.
“Uber and Lyft built their business on the idea that they don’t own anything,” Abuelsamid defined. “The only thing they own is their software platform.”
“They don’t own any vehicles,” he continued. “They don’t have to put fuel in them. They don’t have to insure them or maintain them. That’s problematic for robotaxis because now you have to find somebody that’s going to own, operate, and maintain those vehicles.”
“So there’s a lot of new kinds of operational challenges and operational expenses associated with robotaxis that you don’t have with a human-driven vehicle when you’re relying on somebody else bringing their own vehicle to your platform,” he stated.
“They are responsible for all of that stuff. That is not part of your cost of doing business. When you go to a robotaxi, all of a sudden, all of that stuff becomes part of your cost of doing business.”
Tesla’s Contrarian Approach
Sanchez added that though Tesla is broadly thought-about the chief by way of miles pushed and geographical protection of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) service, attributable to in depth information ingestion from its cumulative fleet of automobiles, it has solely lately showcased its particular method to robotaxis with the Cybercab.
“It’s also somewhat unclear if Tesla will pursue a company-operated fleet at scale or simply operate as a platform to enable individual owners to use Cybercabs — or presumably other Teslas with fully autonomous capability — as an entrepreneurial venture,” he stated.
Cybercab (Image Credit: Tesla)
He famous that Tesla has traditionally been extremely vertically built-in and has usually taken a contrarian method to applied sciences. One noteworthy instance is Tesla’s shunning of Lidar in its suite of autonomous sensing applied sciences, whereas a lot of the remainder of the business has been embracing it or contemplating it a “mandatory” know-how for secure AV operation.
“Tesla refuses to use any other type of sensors, which I think is a fundamental mistake,” Abuelsamid stated. “I don’t think that they are going to be able to build a viable robotaxi platform with a camera-only system. It’s not robust enough.”
“It doesn’t work well in low light conditions,” he continued. “It doesn’t work well in fog or rain. It’s cheaper, but it does not have the robustness of a system that uses multiple types of sensors.”
Can Robotaxis Win Consumer Confidence?
Mark Giarelli, an fairness analyst with Morningstar Research Services in Chicago, views Lyft as a laggard within the robotaxi partnership race.
“The most important thing to remember here is that Lyft has a way smaller value proposition to autonomous vehicle manufacturers compared to what Uber offers because Lyft’s network of drivers and riders is so much smaller than Uber’s,” Giarelli advised TechNewsWorld.
“If an AV company partners with Uber, they are guaranteeing access to 75% of the U.S. rideshare market, but if they partner with Lyft, they are only getting access to 20% to 25% of the U.S. rideshare market,” he defined.
During this early chapter within the robotaxi story, the know-how has confronted some challenges. “It’s not been an easy rollout,” stated Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in Las Vegas.
“Deploying robotaxis in cities face major challenges such as regulatory hurdles, with complex and evolving approval processes that vary by region,” he advised TechNewsWorld. “Technical difficulties arise from navigating dense urban environments filled with unpredictable obstacles like pedestrians, cyclists, and construction zones.”
“Additionally, achieving public trust and ensuring safety at scale remain significant obstacles, especially after high-profile incidents involving autonomous vehicles,” he stated.
Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst on the Enderle Group, an advisory companies agency in Bend, Ore., agreed that getting folks comfy with the know-how has been an issue. “The large-scale trials have had issues with noise, navigation errors, and glitches stranding some riders,” he advised TechNewsWorld.
“They are still largely safer than human-driven cars, but when something bad happens, because they are new, the accident gets an unusual amount of attention, creating the false impression the technology is unsafe,” he stated.
Growing Consumer Comfort With Robotaxis
Nevertheless, there are indicators that customers are getting extra comfy with the know-how. In its second U.S. Robotaxi Experience examine launched in October, J.D. Power discovered shopper satisfaction with the robotaxi expertise to be 8.53 on a 10-point scale.
The shopper analysis, information, and analytics agency in Troy, Mich., additionally reported that shopper confidence when driving in a totally automated, self-driving automobile is 56 share factors increased amongst those that have ridden in a robotaxi (76%) than the overall inhabitants who haven’t had the expertise (20%).
Kathleen Rizk, Power’s senior director of person expertise benchmarking and know-how, acknowledged, nonetheless, that many shoppers with robotaxi expertise are typically early adopters.
“What we find with early adopters of technology is they don’t always expect technology to work perfectly when it’s brand new, but they want to be part of that experience,” Rizk advised TechNewsWorld. “So they may experience an issue, but they’re more willing to overlook it as part of the technology — like a bug being worked out.”
The examine additionally revealed that when given a collection of eventualities assuming the price for both service can be the identical, 77% of riders say they would favor to make the most of a robotaxi service with no human driver when needing to have a non-public dialog within the automobile. In distinction, a ride-hailing service, reminiscent of Uber or Lyft, is most popular when touring in an space they don’t know properly.
“Whether it’s a taxi, ride-hailing, or robotaxi, what it’s ultimately going to come down to is affordability for the consumer,” Rizk stated.
That time, though years away, will finally come. Enderle predicted: “By 2035, finding a human-driven taxi will be as hard as finding a robotaxi today.”