Here’s where the top gig companies stand with autonomous vehicles

Lyft debuted autonomous vehicles on Thursday for riders in Austin through a partnership with self-driving startup Argo AI and Ford.

The announcement marks Lyft’s latest foray into the autonomous vehicle (AV) space via partnership. Lyft is far from alone on that front: Competitors, including Uber and DoorDash, have also worked with outside autonomous companies to bring robots to consumers.

Gig companies have long eyed automation as a means to cut down costs (namely, by removing workers). But early efforts to develop the AI internally have yielded mixed results, and several companies have since sold off their own tech and have opted instead to partner with other firms. Here’s where the major players stand today:

Lyft

Lyft sold its self-driving unit to Toyota in April 2021, a sign the company wanted to shed the concerns—and costs—around developing its own AV tech. Since that $550 million deal, Lyft has been able to focus on its core business and partner with key AV players to offer rides.

Last year, Lyft partnered with Argo and Ford in an effort to deploy at least 1,000 robotaxis in the next five years. That partnership is live in Austin, Miami, and Las Vegas. Lyft has also partnered with Motional, an Aptiv-Hyundai joint venture and Alphabet’s Waymo, to offer driverless rideshares. Lyft says on its website that it has completed more than 100,000 paid self-driving rides through its platform.

Uber (rideshare)

Uber also shed its self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, in December 2020 as part of widespread efforts to stem losses during the pandemic. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joined the company’s board as part of the deal in addition to a $400 million investment. Dropping Advanced Technologies marked a major shift in the company’s strategy, as former CEO and cofounder Travis Kalanick believed self-driving tech was a necessary investment.

Despite the sale, Khosrowshahi insists the company isn’t giving up on developing its own tech. “What we want to make sure is that, as technology is developed, it’s developed for Uber network and is available for the Uber network at scale,” he told CNBC. Uber hasn’t launched anything on the rideshare front yet.

Uber Eats

Uber announced it was acquiring Postmates in November 2020, which also brought the food delivery startup’s robotics division under Uber’s wing. The division, called Postmates X, was spun off a few months later as an independent company called Serve Robotics, which focuses on autonomous sidewalk deliveries. In May, Uber Eats launched a partnership with Serve for deliveries in West Hollywood.

But the food delivery giant has been testing a handful of delivery pilots with other companies too: For example, a partnership with Motional in Santa Monica, and a 10-year deal with AV driving startup Nuro for deliveries in Houston and Mountain View, California.

DoorDash

DoorDash has had its eye on the robotics and automation space for quite some time now. The delivery company acquired Scotty Labs in 2019 (it also acquired Chowbotics and later shuttered it). What people didn’t know at the time was that DoorDash had already been stealthily working on automation and robotics technologies since 2018. The company revealed in November 2021 that its in-house incubator, DoorDash Labs, had been working for years to find, develop, and integrate autonomous tech into its company.

DoorDash appears to have gotten a bit closer to that goal. Recently, the company filed a patent for an autonomous vehicle focused on last-mile deliveries that would include a storage compartment for perishable goods.

Grubhub

Grubhub, which was acquired by Dutch delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway last year (and is now again up for sale), is focusing its U.S. robotic delivery efforts around college campuses. The company had a multiyear partnership with Russian tech giant Yandex so driverless robots could deliver food to students. The company then severed that partnership in March after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this summer, Grubhub announced a new partnership with Cartken, a startup that also specializes in AI-powered robotics and delivery operations.

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