Lyft and Uber stand out amongst ride-hailing companies around the world. These two are part of the reason why the market of ride-hailing has catapulted in greater heights and is expected to reach a whopping amount of $276 billion by the year 2025. The competition is so stiff that these two ride-hailing giants ventured into another field. Just when people thought that ride-hailing was enough, Uber and Lyft have looked into becoming successful in operating autonomous cars and combining it with their ride-hailing services.
Ride-hailing’s industry has an impressive market value prowess, but so is the market of driverless cars, which according to experts will reach a monstrous amount of $126.8 billion by the year 2027.
All Or Nothing For Uber
Uber, the more popular of the two, has been in the ride-hailing service since 2008. Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, believes that entering the world of driverless vehicles will give them a head start against their competitors, especially Lyft.
The San Francisco-based company formed a group called the Uber Advanced Technologies Group (ATG). It examines and creates various solutions for self-driving transportation and car safety.
Using their Uber ATG cars, which are gray Volvo XC90s, the innovative team installed the cars with high-tech sensors such as cameras, laser scanners, and radars in order to map the environment properly. ATG works with Daimler, a renowned premium, and commercial car manufacturer.
The group initially tested ATG cars in Pittsburgh, Phoenix, San Francisco, and Toronto.
In developing Uber’s driverless technology, the team seeked assistance from a technology-driven company called Nvidia. The autonomous vehicles of Uber utilize the computing technology of Nvidia.
Lyft Trying To Stay In The Game
With its humble beginning, Lyft is a transportation network company that has definitely risen to the occasion and even bagging an estimated revenue of $1.5 billion. Being considered as a rookie has its benefits and one of the advantages would be the element of surprise.
Lyft is also trying its luck into the self-driving vehicle program. With the help from NuTonomy, a startup company that manufactures and sells software for self-driving cars, Lyft was able to send out driverless vehicles at Seaport district in Boston.
Accompanied by safety drivers, the autonomous cars transport passengers who use the application of Lyft.
NuTonomy said, “Our partnership with Lyft has two goals. First, we want to let members of the public experience driverless vehicles firsthand, so they can better understand the impact this new technology will have on their lives. Second, based on feedback from pilot participants, NuTonomy’s engineers will adapt and improve our system, so that we can deliver an autonomous transportation experience that is extremely safe, efficient, and comfortable.”
Another company that trusted Lyft was Magna International Incorporated, an eminent developer, and supplier of vehicle system parts.
The Ontario-based firm mentioned that it is going to devote $200 million in Lyft to co-create self-driving cars. Magna promises to supply useful kits like cameras, radar, and LIDAR systems that would alter regular vehicles into autonomous cars.
Lidar And Its Surveying Measures
The technology of autonomous vehicles would not be possible without the sensor devices like the cameras, radars, and LIDARs. However, experts are giving emphasis on LIDAR, as it is becoming the basic building block of all future self-driving vehicles.
An acronym for laser sensing technology, LIDAR sends out signal waves in order to recognize the surroundings. The sensing capabilities of LIDAR is also more reliable and faster than cameras.
Mobileye, Quanergy, Fastree3D, Solar Monkey, and LeddarTech are some of the biggest companies that manufacture LIDAR.
Lyft and Uber continuously come up with ways on how to better the transportation system, but looking at the bigger picture, these works actually benefits the society. With these service combinations and explorations, people can surely expect a bold impact from Uber and Lyft.
