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Shares of ridesharing rivals Uber (NYSE:UBER) and Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) are on the defensive Thursday as Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) robotaxi launch in Austin looms.
The electric carmaker expects full self-driving Model Ys to hit the road in the Texas capital in two weeks with a small fleet of 10 to 20 Model Y vehicles equipped with the latest version of Tesla’s (NASDAQ:TSLA) FSD software. This week, the company tested the car’s performance on Austin’s public roads without a driver and a Tesla engineer in the passenger seat.
Uber (NYSE:UBER) has been aggressively pursuing a similar goal of fully autonomous driving through partnerships with Google’s (GOOG) Waymo in Austin and Atlanta, Pony AI (PONY), Momenta, and May Mobility, with May Mobility planning an initial launch of autonomous vehicles on the Uber platform in Arlington, Texas at the end of this year. A similar partnership with WeRide (WRD) aims to expand ridesharing with autonomous vehicles to 17 cities over the next 5 years.
Lyft (NASDAQ:LYFT) also has FSD ambitions through partnerships with Mobileye (MBLY), Marubeni (OTCPK:MARUY) (OTCPK:MARUF), and May Mobility with a potential launch in Atlanta as soon as this summer and in Dallas by 2026.
“Over time AVs will certainly change the dynamics of the rideshare marketplace,” Lyft CEO David Risher said, a sentiment echoed by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi who predicts AVs replacing human-driven vehicles as early as 2040.
“Uber’s future is autonomous, but there will be several other players as well in this trillion-dollar industry,” he adds.
More on Uber, Lyft, etc.
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