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> https://www.pcmag.com/news/355096/lyft-goes-all-in-on-driverless-car-tech?source=google-editors-picks&google_editors_picks=true <https://www.pcmag.com/news/355096/lyft-goes-all-in-on-driverless-car-tech?source=google-editors-picks&google_editors_picks=true>
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> Lyft Goes All In on Driverless Car Tech
> 'To be clear, we aren't thinking of our self-driving division as a side project,' Lyft's VP of Engineering Luc Vincent wrote in a blog post. 'It's core to our business.'
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> Watch out, Uber <https://www.pcmag.com/news/352468/ubers-first-autonomous-driving-progress-report-is-in>: Lyft is opening its own self-driving division.
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> <https://www.pcmag.com/nextcar>In a blog post <https://medium.com/@lvincent/introducing-level-5-and-our-self-driving-team-705ef8989f03>, Lyft's VP of Engineering, Luc Vincent, an ex-Googler who founded that company's Street View team, said Lyft is developing an "open self-driving system."
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> The announcement comes after Lyft earlier this year introduced what it calls "the world's first open self-driving platform." Car manufacturers and self-driving systems can access the network <https://take.lyft.com/open-platform/> for insights on a "diverse set of real-life scenarios," based on Lyft's nearly one million rides per day.
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> Vincent, who joined Lyft in February, said the company's self-driving vehicles will operate on that network alongside vehicles introduced by Lyft partners.
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> "To be clear, we aren't thinking of our self-driving division as a side project," he wrote. "It's core to our business."
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> Ten percent of Lyft engineers are currently focused on developing self-driving technology, and the company is planning to grow that team in the months to come. Lyft's new self-driving team will work out of a brand-new Palo Alto, Calif. development facility dubbed Level 5 Engineering Center. The name is a nod to SAE International's standard <https://www.sae.org/news/3544/>, which defines automated driving based on six levels of capability, ranging from zero (no automation) to 5 (full automation).
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> For Lyft drivers concerned about their livelihood, Vincent said Lyft will "always operate a hybrid network, with rides from both human-driven and self-driving cars."
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> "When a passenger requests a ride that a self-driving car can complete, we may send one to complete the trip," he wrote. "If that person needs to go somewhere self-driving cars are unable to navigate, or their needs call for a different level of service, they will have a driver."
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> Last fall, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer argued <https://www.pcmag.com/news/347963/lyft-say-goodbye-to-private-car-ownership-by-2025> that private car ownership will be a thing of the past by 2025. Citizens will instead rely on self-driving taxis, and in the process free up land now occupied by parking lots and congested streets for new businesses and public spaces.
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> Watch: We Rode in a Self-Driving Uber Car
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