Lyft is the latest company to be added to the ever-growing list of those permitted to test their self-driving technology on California state public roads. The California Department of Motor Vehicles added Lyft to the list recently (via Axios), following Lyft’s foundation of a self-driving technology development center earlier this year, and its announcement that it would work on both its own autonomous tech and with automaker and other partners.
The fact that the ride hailing provider secured an autonomous vehicle testing permit from the state DMV could suggest it’s ready to start testing its own vehicles and technology on roads very soon. The company has previously discussed pilot projects with a number of autonomous technology partners to debut self-driving vehicles working on its platform, including with fellow DMV list member Drive.ai, but this would seem to suggest it’ll take a more active role in the vehicle technology itself in the near future.
Other permit holders include Lyft rival Uber, potential rival (and partner) Waymo, automakers including Mercedes-Benz, Tesla and Ford, just to name a few.