Driverless vehicle maker Motional and ride-hailing giant Lyft Inc. plan to launch a multimarket robotaxi service in 2023.
Motional, the $4 billion Hyundai-Aptiv autonomous-driving joint venture, will integrate, operationalize and deploy fully driverless vehicles on the Lyft network in major U.S. cities, the two companies said Wednesday.
Motional and Lyft are behind a self-driving taxi service operation in Las Vegas, which was paused this year because of the coronavirus pandemic but resumed in October. The partners began offering rides in 2018.
Wednesday's agreement furthers the companies' partnership as "the new vehicles will be fully driverless, the fleet size will grow significantly and the service will have the potential to scale widely," Motional and Lyft said in a statement.
Launch markets will be disclosed later, the companies said. The robotaxis will be based on a Hyundai vehicle platform and integrated with sensors, computers and software to enable driverless operation and remote vehicle assistance.
Wednesday's news follows Motional's November announcement of plans to go fully driverless on public roads in Nevada after receiving approval from the state's Department of Motor Vehicles.
The Hyundai-Aptiv JV, headquartered in Boston, was named Motional in August. It also has a partnership with on-demand shuttle provider Via to provide public shared robotaxi rides in the first half of next year in a to-be-announced market.
