Let’s start the week right. Will you think twice and be afraid if you hop on a bus without a driver? Meaning, it will move and ply the road, but with no driver maneuvering the steering wheel. Yes, like a Waymo.
You might think twice since you might say there’s a big chance the bus will run into an accident and victimize not only you, but also the other passengers. But, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Soon, driverless buses are coming, too.
Lyft has started this week right, announcing its newest partnership with Germany’s BENTELER, a company that operates globally in the fields of automotive technology, as well as in steel and tube production and engineering.
So, this partnership will see those driverless public vehicles move along the roads in the United States beginning in 2026.
“We are delighted to be teaming up with Lyft. Lyft’s innovative and ambitious culture matches our own. Lyft brings excellent expertise in ride-hailing, deep market penetration, and a strong commitment to making autonomous mobility a reality,” stated the CEO of BENTELER, Tobias Liebelt. “Together, we combine their technology excellence and user-first approach with our automotive-grade AV platforms, operational excellence, and scalable fleet capabilities. This partnership will allow us to turn ambition into deployment – bringing safety-focused, efficient, and accessible mobility to the streets faster than ever before – let’s make it happen.”
If this is the first time you are hearing from BENTELER, don’t fret. This is a historic collaboration that would expand the visibility of autonomous ride options across the network of Lyft in the areas that the partnership will serve. Lyft currently caters to more than 44 million riders yearly.
“BENTELER Mobility is exactly the kind of partner we need to accelerate our AV ambitions,” said Jeremy Bird, Lyft’s executive vice president of driver experience. “Their fleet ownership and financing capabilities mean they have ambitions to own and operate vehicles at scale, not just build them — a rarity in this industry. All this means we can more quickly deploy AVs.”
Under this collaboration, the availability of autonomous vehicle options across the Lyft network is also going to work by supplying purpose-built autonomous cars developed by subsidiary HOLON GmbH – which you may have already learned about here before – a company focused on autonomous transport solutions.
These urban shuttles and buses will get integrated into the Lyft platform, starting to service passengers next year, 2026, but sadly, in late 2026. Nevertheless, early deployments targeting city centers and airports are already underway.
The autonomous shuttles will incorporate Mobileye’s self-driving technology. It is ever easy to reserve a ride because you could book one on the official Lyft app.
This team-up builds on the ridesharing app’s broader ambitions to create a hybrid network wherein human drivers and autonomous systems operate side by side.
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