Lyft has announced a partnership with Waymo to launch a robotaxi service in Nashville, Tennessee, by 2026. The agreement assigns Lyft’s fleet management unit, Flexdrive, responsibility for the day-to-day operations of Waymo’s autonomous vehicle fleet in the city. This includes maintenance, depot operations, and roadside assistance.
Initially, customers will be able to hail robotaxis using the Waymo app. Over time, the service is expected to be integrated into the Lyft app to create a unified user experience.
Lyft CEO David Risher commented on the collaboration: “This partnership brings together best-in-class autonomous vehicles with best-in-class customer experience. Waymo has proven that its autonomous technology works at scale. When combined with Lyft’s customer-obsession and world-class fleet management capabilities, it’s two great tastes that go great together.”
Waymo currently operates autonomous ride-hailing services in several major U.S. cities such as San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta. The company reports handling hundreds of thousands of rides each week across these locations.
According to safety data released by Waymo, its autonomous driving system—referred to as the Waymo Driver—has shown 91% fewer injuries or crashes compared to an average human driver over similar distances in its operating cities. Additionally, there have been 79% fewer airbag deployment incidents and 80% fewer injury-causing crashes. The system has accumulated more than 100 million miles on public roads and conducted tens of billions of simulated miles across over 15 states.
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana highlighted Lyft’s operational strengths: “We’re delighted to partner with Lyft and launch in Nashville next year,” she said. “As we continue to scale our Waymo ride-hailing service to more people in more places. Lyft’s extensive fleet management capabilities through Flexdrive make it an ideal partner for expanding to Nashville. We can’t wait to introduce Music City’s residents and visitors to the convenient, consistent, safe, and magical Waymo experience.”
In addition to this partnership in Nashville, Lyft is working with Mobileye on plans for robotaxi operations in Dallas by 2026. Meanwhile, Waymo is also collaborating with Uber for similar deployments in Austin and Atlanta.
