Lyft is going to sell its self-driving business department to a subsidiary of Toyota. The Japanese automobile manufacturer agree to buy it for $550 million. Lyft has accumulated mobility data in Las Vegas with Motional. It is a venture under Hyundai Motor Group, which is also flowing to Toyota.
According to Bloomberg, Lyft agreed on the 26th (local time) to sell its self-driving business unit “Level 5” to its subsidiary Woven Planet, which expanded Toyota research division on autonomous driving technology.
The sale starts with $200 million and Woven Planet will pay $350 million to Lyft over the next five years. The deal is to close in the third quarter, Reuters said.
Lyft estimates that the sale of its business unit could save $100 million a year
Analysts say that Lyft’s sale of its self-driving business department received a great shock from COVID-19. Although demand for car sharing rebounded to some extent, containment measures to stop the spread of the virus were harsh.
The lower expectations for the development of self-driving cars also affected. Contrary to initial expectations, the development costs high and it takes a long time to apply it safely. Uber also sold its self-driving development group to Aurorinovation last year.
All 300 employees of Rift’s self-driving business department will join Woven Planet. The number of employees at Woven Planet, which Toyota established in January for self-driving cars, will increase to 1,200.
Lyft also decided to share data for more advanced self-driving cars with Woven Planet. In addition to mapping, information contained in high-power sensors of more than 10,000 vehicles that the lift rents to the driver can be used.
Lift has partnered with joint venture Motion established by Hyundai Motor Group and Aptiv and has more than 100,000 mobility data in Vegas.
Lyft said thedeal with Woven Planet is non-exclusive. This indicates that partnerships with Waymo and Motion, which are subsidiaries of Google’s self-driving businesses, will also be maintained. The goal of having customers call driverless cars using applications is to be achieved by 2023.
