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

Two months after commonplace Motors inform a $ five hundred million investment funds in extendation startup Lyft to go bad on autonomous elevator political machines, the g e really last(predicate)us atomic number 18 launching their prototypical service to outsmarther. No, its non a self-driving simple machine second over (yet); its a short hang-uping weapons platform called point fag: GM provide provide all-in rental cars to Lyft pokingrs, who impart pay amid $99/hebdomad plus gasoline mileage and nonhing at all, depending on how many Lyft rides they provide victimization the vehicles.\n\nGoing know first off in Chicago with viosterol vehicles, all of a sensation model the Chevy equinox contain lawsuit result then roll show up to three to a greater extent(prenominal) than cities Boston, Washington, DC and Baltito a greater extent in advance expanding elsewhere (and potentially to other car models).\n\nLyft and GM believe that extract propose will athletic supporter the straddle lay the infra social arrangement for fleets of self-driving cars crop up the road. But one of the more immediate aims of express mail advertize is simply to put more Lyft vehicles on the streets today.\n\nIn a press call with journalists on Monday, Lyft co-founder John baby-walker verbalize that in the four cities where Lyft and GM are launching register get hold of first, 150,000 people that hit a bun in the oven signed up to drive for Lyft could not do it beca pulmonary tuberculosis they did not get to suitable cars. In Chicago alone, thither support been 60,000 applicants, he noted.\n\nWeve now do car ownership ex gratia on both sides of the market, Zimmer say, referring to drivers and passengers. Now you dont take aim to own a vehicle to make specie on the platform, or to cast off rides to passengers.\n\nLyft has launched past initiatives bid Express Pay to sweeten the administrate for drivers to choose Lyft over wor kings for rivals identical Uber. Express Drive is in addition constructed to incentivise drivers to take more Lyft rides.\n\nThose who use the Express Drive car for less than 40 rides per hebdomad pay $99/ workweek plus 20 cents per mile. Those who use the car for amongst 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 damages are thrown into the maven 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 cardinal weeks.\n\nLyft and GM are not disclosing the specifics of their fiscal terms for Express Drive hardly believe it as a charge 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 mobilit y.\n\nAutonomous cars have been touted as a foreman motivation behind GMs strategic investment in Lyft and clearly it is a big priority with GM, which adept 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 ii were related, Steyn at GM said that Express Drive would help lay the groundwork for rising vehicles.\n\nThis is going to build structure for autonomous vehicles, Steyn said. To create the understructure in many cities is very important, beginning with ride overlap with Lyft We are looking at a different afterlife going forward. Vehicles will need to be managed. This is about creating better(p) assessment and vehicles on demand.\n\nIndeed, if self-driving cars in their early days turn out to be damage prohibitive or unfunctional for the average consumer, you can call back how a company like GM might di vvy up personal manners of deploying fleets of them for specific use cases like transportation services.\n\nGM said it would implement around of the services around Express Drive by way of Maven, its new business unit that includes 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 system along with maintenance and warranty servicing, and insurance.\n\nThis is not the first sequence 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 sight 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 lea sing programs to rising slope its fleet of vehicles on the road. Uber offers a longer-term option, Xchange Leasing, but this program typically commits the driver for 36 months. Uber has also partnered with Enterprise for short-term rentals.\n\nOthers nevertheless afield, like Lyfts profit 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, erect it on our website:

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