In years to come, your next Lyft ride might be a little more British, assuming the company finally makes it to Canada. Jaguar Land Rover is investing $32 million into the ride-hail company, and JLR is also going to "supply Lyft drivers with a fleet of vehicles."
The investment comes through Jaguar's InMotion mobility services division. InMotion Ventures invests in autonomous fleets and services, navigation services, ride sharing, and mobility as a service startup. The announcement didn't make clear how many vehicles Jaguar would supply, but the deal will allow Jaguar to test their autonomous cars as part of Lyft's ride-share network. That could give them a much deeper test fleet than their current stretch of highway near their UK headquarters.
Lyft has also signed an agreement last month with Waymo to help develop autonomous capability. The investment from Jaguar Land Rover isn't Lyft's first partnership with a major automaker either. GM announced a joint venture worth nearly $700 million early last year. Lyft appears to be taking the position of letting others develop autonomous systems and then using their network for testing, instead of following Uber and developing their own tech.
InMotion had previously invested in SPLT, a Detroit-based ride-sharing service that has partnered with Lyft to help offer non-emergency medical transport.
