GM invests $500m in Lyft with eye on self-driving vehicle networks

GM will use its knowledge of autonomous vehicle technology while Lyft will contribute its ride-sharing expertise.

GM will become a preferred provider of short-term use vehicles to Lyft drivers through rental hubs in various cities in the U.S.

“We think there’s going to be more change in the world of mobility in the next five years than there has been in the last 50”.

GM said it was open to working together with certain Lyft worldwide partners that include India’s Ola, Southeast Asia’s GrabTaxi and China’s Didi Kuaidi, said Ammann.

Lyft’s current service of on-demand ride sharing created over 7 million rides a month during 2015 in more than 190 cities within the US, with the company grossing over $1 billion in revenue through October.

“We actually have thousands and thousands of signups for individuals whose cars don’t qualify”, he said. Over at General Motors, further change is afoot: the Associated Press reports in the LA Times that the company’s chief executive Mary Barra will also serve as its company’s chairwoman. The GM-Lyft deal comes as automakers and Silicon Valley companies are exploring new alliances and new technologies that will reshape the global automotive industry.

They have also invited rival auto companies to join them in countering the push by Apple, Google, Tesla and others into self-driving cars, or what the industry calls autonomous vehicles. That could expand Lyft’s business by giving people who don’t own cars a way to drive and earn money through Lyft.

John Zimmer, president and co-founder of Lyft, told CNBC today that the rental cars would allow potential recruits whose own cars do not meet Lyft’s qualifications to work as Lyft drivers.

Founded out of San Francisco in 2012, Lyft had received $1.2 billion in funding prior to this deal.

Like Lyft, Uber is also working to expand beyond its current reliance on user-owned cars to autonomous vehicle services.

The final context is that Lyft and GM are going against Uber.