
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Lyft’s strategy of using their ride-sharing network as a platform for other companies’ autonomous vehicles, and the contrast this strategy drew with Uber, which is developing its own AVs. It seemed like Lyft’s strategy was playing out nicely.
Maybe Lyft thinks otherwise now.
The company announced a new autonomous vehicle team that plans to scale up to several hundred engineers. Exactly what this team is going to do is not totally clear — whether it’s building an actual autonomous vehicle or simply providing supporting infrastructure for other companies vehicles.
But it’s more evidence that everybody wants to, and feels the need to, develop their own autonomous vehicles.