Lyft is selling its autonomous vehicle to Woven Planet Holdings a subsidiary of Toyota — the latest in a series of acquisitions that is seeing the world of self-driving cars grow increasingly smaller.
Woven Planet Holdings, will acquire Lyft’s self-driving division, Level 5, for $550 million in cash — $200 million of which was provided to Lyft up front. The rest of the money, $350 million, will be paid out to Lyft over five years. The ride-hailing company says it will see an annual savings of $100 million of non-GAAP expenses, which it claims will better position it to ultimately earn a profit. Toyota has also agreed to use Lyft’s fleet data and platform for any commercial service it eventually launches under its Woven Planet subsidiary.
The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021, brings to an end Lyft’s four-year journey toward developing and deploying its own self-driving cars. The company follows its rival Uber in off-loading its costly autonomous vehicle division in a bid to stop losing so much money. Last year, Uber sold its AV project to Aurora, a startup founded by the former head of Google’s self-driving project.
Source: Theverge
