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Google's parent company Alphabet has now revealed a major new partnership with ride-hailing app Lyft that offers strong rivalry to Elon Musk's Robotaxi service through Tesla, especially following its connections with Uber.
While much of the fame and fortunes that come with the dream of self-driving vehicles has been associated with Tesla and Elon Musk over the last several years, Alphabet have been leading the charge with Waymo in certain locations across the United States.
Originally known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, Waymo achieved the first ever fully driverless car on public roads over a decade ago, and since October 2020 has offered the service to the public without any safety drivers inside the vehicle.
Waymo currently operates in a number of key California locations, alongside robotaxi services in Arizona, Georgia, Florida, and Texas, and has now announced another significant partnership that could only further its dominance in the space.
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As reported by CNBC, Waymo has built on an existing partnership with Uber – which brought its robotaxis to Atlanta and Austin in Texas – by announcing a new major deal with Lyft which will bring the self-driving cars to Nashville at some point next year.
Anyone who wants to hail a Waymo robotaxi in Nashville once the partnership officially launches can do so either through the Waymo One app or Lyft's own services once the cars are added over time.
According to a statement from the companies, Lyft "will provide end-to-end fleet management services including vehicle readiness and maintenance, infrastructure, and depot operations in Nashville."
This gives Alphabet another significant advantage over Tesla in the robotaxi world, as Musk's operations are currently only available in Austin, Texas after an initial test period earlier this summer, and have previously turned down opportunities to collaborate with other key companies.
As per reports from Bloomberg, Uber's CEO revealed that, despite having conversations with the world's richest man, Tesla will be 'going it alone' and opting not to partner with any other entity in its mission to provide robotaxi services.
"They want to build it alone, so to some extent in Austin, we and Waymo will be competing with Tesla when they launch," Dara Khrosrowshahi explained, adding that "life is long, but we would love to partner with them."
It's not just locations that Waymo leads all of its competitors in though, as as a consequence of its wide-reaching services it has logged over 10 million paid trips since it was introduced, which is significantly more than its competitors.
There could very well be a point where Tesla catches up and the playing fields appear more even, yet at this current point in time there is no question that Alphabet remains heavily in the lead in the robotaxi race.
