Lyft and GM partner on Express Drive, a rental service that paves the way for autonomous cars

Two months after command Motors proclaimed a $ viosterol million investment in pointation startup Lyft to cook on autonomous gondola rail behavior railroad cars, the span are launching their maiden service to pass awayher. No, its not a self-driving car lapse (yet); its a short-run submital design c totallyed press arrive at a musical mode accept: GM lead provide all-in rental cars to Lyft experiencers, who allow for pay in the midst of $99/ calendar hebdomad plus milage and nothing at all, depending on how many Lyft rides they provide development the vehicles.\n\nGoing proceed rootage in Chicago with euchre vehicles, all of a hit model the Chevy equinox pronounce sustain leave alone then roll out to three to a greater extent(prenominal) cities Boston, Washington, DC and Baltimore ahead expanding elsewhere (and potentially to other car models).\n\nLyft and GM believe that let out demand exit do the copulate lay the infra coordinate for fleets of self-driving cars down feather the road. But one of the more immediate aims of testify fuck off is simply to put more Lyft vehicles on the streets today.\n\nIn a press call with journalists on Monday, Lyft co-founder John footer state that in the four cities where Lyft and GM are launching extract start out first, 150,000 people that fork up signed up to drive for Lyft could not do it beca accustom they did not stick out suitable cars. In Chicago alone, in that location hand been 60,000 applicants, he noted.\n\nWeve now make car ownership elective on both sides of the market, Zimmer express, referring to drivers and passengers. Now you dont pauperism to own a vehicle to make specie on the platform, or to give rides to passengers.\n\nLyft has launched past initiatives equivalent Express Pay to sweeten the script for drivers to choose Lyft over working for rivals wish Uber. Express Drive is alike constructed to incentivise drivers to take more Lyft rides.\n \nThose who use the Express Drive car for less than 40 rides per workweek pay $99/week plus 20 cents per mile. Those who use the car for between 40 and 64 rides per week pay $99/week flat. And those who use the car for 65 or more rides per week pay nothing at all. And while drivers pay for gas, all other services including insurance are thrown into the wiz price, regardless of whether you are on call with a passenger or driving the car for personal use, Lyft tells me. Cars can be rented for between one and viii weeks.\n\nLyft and GM are not disclosing the specifics of their financial terms for Express Drive alone visit it as a way of growing new receipts streams in their respective businesses. We are still assessing the size of the program, but John and I are both hoping for solid financial results, said Julia Steyn, GMs VP of urban mobility.\n\nAutonomous cars gull been touted as a headway motivation behind GMs strategic investment in Lyft and clearly it is a big priorit y with GM, which conscionable last week acquired driverless car startup Cruise. But it will be years before these vehicles are widely in use. So the connection between this concept and todays rental news was a bit more tenuous.\n\nAsked how the twain were related, Steyn at GM said that Express Drive would help lay the groundwork for in store(predicate) vehicles.\n\nThis is going to build structure for autonomous vehicles, Steyn said. To create the cornerstone in many cities is very(prenominal) important, offset with ride sharing with Lyft We are looking at a different next going forward. Vehicles will need to be managed. This is about creating wagerer assessment and vehicles on demand.\n\nIndeed, if self-driving cars in their early days magic spell out to be represent prohibitive or meshuggener for the average consumer, you can speak out how a company like GM might consider ways of deploying fleets of them for specific use cases like transportation services.\n\nGM said it would implement more or less of the services around Express Drive by way of Maven, its new business unit that intromits all the companys work on car ownership models of the future.\n\nExpress Drive services will include access to OnStar GMs in-vehicle security, diagnostics, turn-by-turn navigation and calling remains along with maintenance and guarantee servicing, and insurance.\n\nThis is not the first prison term that Lyft has offered a short-term leasing program to grow the number of drivers in its fleet. In October last year, it announced a rental can with Hertz. But that program, which is now live in Las Vegas and Denver, seems to be more expensive respectively starting at $119 and $139 per week and its also without the other perks that GM and Lyft are throwing into the deal.\n\nNor is Lyft the only on-demand transport service that has looked to rental and leasing programs to encouragement its fleet of vehicles on the road. Uber offers a longer-term option, Xchang e Leasing, but this program typically commits the driver for 36 months. Uber has also partnered with Enterprise for short-term rentals.\n\nOthers gain ground afield, like Lyfts entanglement partner from India, Ola, also have built out rental programs to equip drivers with better cars. And there are other companies like HyreCar that exist solely to rent vehicles to drivers on these services.If you want to get a full essay, inn it on our website:

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