Two important news stories for Lyft today. First, Freenow by Lyft has integrated with the expense management automation platform Concur Expense. And, David Risher, the CEO of Lyft, has admitted that self-driving technology isn’t ready yet. Here’s the story.
Lyft, Concur Expense
Freenow is a multi-mobility app owned and managed by Lyft, operating primarily in Europe. It offers various transportation options, including taxis, private hire vehicles, e-scooters, e-bikes, carsharing, and public transport tickets.
Today, it has entered into an enterprise integration with Concur Expense, an expense management system that automates processes and gives travel managers a more centralized view of bookings.
The integration is already live, as of press time.
It connects business travelers who use the Freenow by Lyft app with their employee profiles on Concur Expense, allowing receipts from their trips to be automatically uploaded for proper expense reporting.
David Koral, the director of customer success and sales at Freenow, told Ridesharing Forum, “This strategic integration is a significant step forward in Freenow’s commitment to providing efficient and user-friendly solutions for business travel. It promises faster expense reporting, reduced paperwork, and more time for everyone – from travellers to finance teams.”
Aside from those perks, travel and expense managers will also get the opportunity to view all trips that employees take via the Freenow admin panel, which streamlines all processes.
Koral further noted that every trip information and relevant costs, with the integration, will be provided to Concur Expense, regardless of whether it is a personal or corporate card payment, or through centralized billing.
Self-driving tech, not ready yet
Waymo has it, and some other ridesharing apps have enabled cars with no human drivers. But the CEO of Lyft, David Risher, has broken his silence, saying that self-driving technology is not ready yet. Oops.
So, things would have to be moved back. Risher is challenging the hype of self-driving cars, issuing a formidable warning, saying that, although there is a widespread use of self-driving vehicles now, he spoke at the recently concluded Web Summit in Lisbon, stating that there are technological, consumer, and regulatory challenges.
As for what these are specifically, he explained, on the part of the tech hurdles, saying that the technology is “not entirely ready for fog or snow or heavy rain,” and admit it, you would have to agree, right?
Then, consumers are also leaving some room for compassion by not yet supporting self-driving cars. Aside from being in the shoes of human drivers who are losing their jobs due to these autonomous vehicles.
Even governments are not prepared to cover them under the law, as of the moment. Risher also pinpointed the slow rollout of these cars, although there is, and this will continue “for the foreseeable future.”
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