General Motors Invests $500 million in Lyft Inc

In the future, the Lyft vehicle that picks you up could have an empty driver’s seat, thanks to a $500 million investment from GM.

The development of a network of on-demand autonomous vehicles will combine GM’s advancing autonomous technology and Lyft’s platform of ride-sharing services.

“We had a really common view of the future”, said GM President Dan Ammann in an interview with Reuters.

According to John Zimmer, president and co-founder of Lyft, together with GM, the ridesharing company will expand its knowledge in transportation and will build a better future. (“Lyft”) today announced that it is closing $1 billion with a $500 million investment from General Motors. Most of the world’s top auto companies are working to introduce self-driving cars. The association also means GM might have an inside track at selling GM vehicles to Lyft drivers. Last month, Saudi Arabia billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal invested more than $100 million in the company.

GM is expected to bring forth its expertise when it comes to developing autonomous vehicles while Lyft will be working on software that would automate routing, payments as well as ride matching.

San Francisco-based Lyft is the proprietor of a ride-hailing app that connects drivers with cars to passengers who need a ride.

Reportedly, it is part of a $1 billion fundraising round which valued the car-hailing startup at $5.5 billion in comparison; Uber was recently valued at greater than $60 billion.

The two will also jointly develop a network of self-driving vehicles available on-demand for customers.

Lyft was founded in 2012 and has grown quickly to establish ride-sharing networks in 190 U.S. cities with the vision of improving personal transport and reducing the number of cars on the road.