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Lyft sees drivers as part of future
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Lyft will keep humans inside its self-driving vehicles once they are part of its fleet, Taggart Matthiesen, the company's Director of Product recently told Recode.
Until now, it seemed safe to assume the firm would let its fully autonomous vehicles operate unoccupied to cut costs, and since many of Lyft's competitors are taking this approach.
Keeping a worker inside self-driving vehicles could give Lyft some key advantages.
It could help the company bolster the in-car experience. Once cars become fully autonomous, riders will have far more time for activities in the vehicle, whether its to purchase goods and services, stream music and videos, or access their social media profiles. And if Lyft keeps a human inside its self-driving cars, that person could be a conduit to these services for riders. For instance, if travelers are being picked up by a Lyft self-driving car at an airport or train station, the employee in the car, if he or she had access to user information, could find personalized restaurant or sight seeing recommendations for these riders. And that could be a valuable enough user experience to attract more potential customers.
Humans in the car could also help Lyft persuade consumers that it's self-driving fleet is safer than competitors'. Since self-driving cars can't yet navigate the roads on their own, most consumers are rightly skeptical of their safety — 54% of US drivers would feel less safe sharing the road with a self driving car, and less than one-third of US consumers are willing to ride in a self-driving taxi. But if Lyft keeps an employee in its self-driving cars who could take control of the vehicle in emergency situations and ensure the vehicles are safe, consumers might feel safer in Lyft's self-driving cars and be more willing to ride in them, which could boost the number of rides Lyft's self-driving cars can book.
Further, it could help it bolster its efforts to attract partners for its self-driving car program and grab a larger share of the market. While Lyft will play a large role in the emerging self-driving ecosystem, the company doesn't have plans to build a car; instead it's partnering with automakers that will do this. And if consumers come to view self-driving cars in the Lyft fleet as safer and more user-friendly because they have a human in them, that could help the firm attract automakers to partner with the company, and allow it to secure a larger share of the 2.5 million fully autonomous vehicles that will be on US roads in 2025.
But those benefits are only worthwhile if they provide substantial enough gains to offset the program's costs. Keeping drivers in the car will be expensive for Lyft. Paying drivers is the biggest cost associated with operating a global ride-hailing service and fuels these firms' large quarterly losses — while Lyft doesn't disclose its financial documents to the public, its main competitor Uber lost $708 million in Q1 2017 alone. But if consumers start to see Lyft's vehicles as safer and more user-friendly, and the firm can secure more partners all because they have a driver inside, that could be of such a benefit to Lyft that it could be able to stomach these massive losses at least temporarily.
Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on self-driving cars that:
Sizes the current and future self-driving car market, forecasting shipments and projecting installed base.
Explains the current state of technology, regulation, and consumer perception.
Analyzes how the development of autonomous cars will impact employment and the economy.
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