Lyft plans autonomous Holon shuttles in late 2026 while Uber inks robotaxi partnerships with Lucid, Nuro, Waymo, and Chinese AV firms.
The company announced on Friday that it will incorporate autonomous transports manufactured by the Austrian Benteler Group into its network in late 2026.
According to Lyft, the shuttles will be deployed in collaboration with U.S. cities and airports. However, they may be expanded beyond that if the program is successful.
The partnership will enable Lyft to utilize urban electric transport manufactured by Benteler’s mobility division under the Holon brand.
According to Bloomberg News, which initially disclosed the Benteler partnership on Friday, the shuttles will be equipped with inward-facing seating that can accommodate up to nine seated passengers and six standing passengers. They will not include a steering wheel or pedals.
The partnership is announced amid a flurry of announcements from Uber, Lyft’s primary competitor, which has recently implemented robotaxis from Waymo and WeRide in numerous cities worldwide.
In addition, Uber is currently integrating robotaxis from Baidu, Pony AI, Momenta, May Mobility, Volkswagen, and Wayve. Additionally, Uber recently announced a partnership with Nuro and Lucid Motors.
Despite years of testing with various partners, Lyft is still in the process of incorporating autonomous vehicles into its fleet. Later this year, the organization intends to integrate autonomous vehicles (AVs) manufactured by May Mobility into its Atlanta network.
It is also collaborating with Mobileye, an autonomy provider; however, it is unclear who would be responsible for manufacturing the vehicles.
Mobileye’s technology powers the Holon transports; however, Lyft informed Bloomberg that these are not the same agreements.