Your Lyft could be self-driving in the near future, and this is not science fiction
Do you live in Boston? Do you hail yourself a Lyft from time to time? Well, you’ll soon have the chance to to be chauffeured around in a self-driving car in the city.
NuTonomy, a company creating self-driving car technology, is partnering with Lyft to roll out self-driving car tech for Lyft rides “in the next few months.”
According to NuTonomy co-founder Karl Iagnemma, the pilot program will roll out with a few vehicles. Riders using the Lyft app will receive a prompt to opt into the trial. Lyft engineers will update the app to provide instructions to potential riders, so no one will unknowingly be hailing a self-driving car.
During the trial, the autonomous cars will be manned by safety drivers (AKA humans who can grab the wheel if needed), so riders can rest assured they’re in safe hands (wheels?) while participating.
Since the tech is so new, the Lyft rides for people who opt into the pilot program will be free, Lyft co-founder Logan Green says.
“We’re planning for future stages of our collaboration that could lead to thousands of cars on the Lyft platform, Green said.
Yes, that means being driven around by robots could be the norm soon. The future is now, right?
