Waymo signed a contract with passenger company Lyft in 2026 to launch the Robotaxi service in Nashville.
The company said Wednesday it will begin testing a fleet of all electrical and autonomous Jaguar I-Pace cars in the Nashville area and will open services to the public next year.
The partnership agreement announced Wednesday was announced as Waymo expanded its Lobotax expansion from Phoenix’s first commercial market to Atlanta, Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Alphabet-owned company has previously announced plans to bring Robotaxis to Miami, Washington, DC, Dallas and Denver.
The deal also demonstrates Waymo’s desire to move beyond becoming a sole operator and an autonomous vehicle technology provider. Earlier this year, Waymo launched its Robotaxi service with Uber in Atlanta and Austin. Under that arrangement, Waymo will be responsible for certain aspects of vehicle testing, roadside assistance and rider support, while Uber manages fleet services such as vehicle cleaning, maintenance, inspection, charging and depot operations through a company called Moove Cars.
Waymo’s arrangement with Lyft in Nashville is similar. Lyft also handles fleet services such as vehicle preparation and maintenance, infrastructure and depot operations through its wholly owned subsidiary FlexDrive. Lyft said it is investing in dedicated AV facilities to support the fleet.
The Waymo-Lyft partnership in Nashville has one important difference between Atlanta and Austin’s relationship with Uber. In Nashville, Robotaxi customers will have access to Robotaxis in two ways. Users initially appear directly through the Waymo app. As services expand, Waymo will also dispatch self-driving cars for matching rides on the Lyft app.
This is different from the Atlanta-Austin partnership with Uber. In these cities, all potential customers should use the Uber app in the hopes that they will match the robot rather than the human driver.
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Lyft and Waymo had previously partnered, but not large. In 2019, Waymo linked with Lyft to bring a handful of self-driving cars to Phoenix’s riding network as the company strengthened its commercial Robotaxi services.
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