Shares of ride-hailing service Lyft are the big winners in the pre-market today. They’re currently up 13% in volatile trading.
The gain comes after Waymo said it plans to launch its self-driving taxi service next year in
Nashville and it will partner with Lyft for the first time. Waymo appears to be testing different strategies as some cities use only Waymo’s ‘One’ app while in other cities (Atlanta and Austin) it’s partnered with Uber.
Lyft shares rose more than 20% but have given some back and is trading up 13% shortly after the open.
The market is infatuated with the robotaxi idea, putting huge multiples on the names in the space, including Tesla. The economics of the service are unproven and problems with security and cleaning are unsolved at scale.
Lyft “will provide end-to-end fleet management services including
vehicle readiness and maintenance, infrastructure, and depot operations
in Nashville,” for the Waymo fleet, the companies said.
Waymo is owned by Google, whose shares this week hit a record $250/share as they fight back for market share with ChatGPT after an impressive image app being paired with Gemini named Nano Banana
