Ride sharing took another step towards going autonomous, as Lyft announced its plans to test driverless cars in the Bay Area.
For now, the company is not giving out much in the way of specifics, saying that it will test its cars soon and in several local cities.
Lyft’s rival Uber got into trouble late last year when it started to test driverless cars in San Francisco. Uber did not apply for the required DMV permits, and the autonomous testing was shortly shut down.
Lyft admits it doesn’t have the permit yet either, but it may have an ace in the hole: Drive.ai, its partner in the endeavor.
Drive.ai, a Mountain View company makes technology like sensors and software for driverless cars, has the necessary permits. If the cars are technically theirs, Lyft should be in the clear.
We’ll update the story when we learn more about where and when the Bay Area autonomous testing will take place.
Scott is on Twitter: @scottbudman
