Lyft robotaxis are not killing Lyft’s business, according to the company’s chief executive, who used the third quarter earnings call on Thursday to set out how the firm plans to make money from self driving cars instead. David Risher said Lyft was growing in the markets where autonomous vehicles operate, and he declined to discuss individual markets in detail when asked about robotaxi competition in cities such as Austin.
Risher said Lyft would prioritise deeper relationships with a limited number of partners, above all Baidu’s Apollo Go and Alphabet’s Waymo. The Lyft robotaxis strategy has two sides, which are managing fleets for others and matching riders to driverless cars on its own app. Risher said the company would have additional partners, but he did not identify them.
The centre of the strategy is Nashville, Tennessee, where Lyft and Waymo announced a partnership on 17 September 2025 to bring Waymo’s fully autonomous ride hailing service to the city in 2026. Lyft’s Flexdrive subsidiary manages the fleet, providing maintenance, charging, cleaning and depot operations, while riders can hail Waymo cars on the Waymo app and, since 9 September, on the Lyft app as well. Nashville is the first market where Waymo cars are available on both apps.
The Lyft robotaxis work in Nashville began in stages. Waymo opened the city in April 2026, Flexdrive took over fleet operations in June, matching on the Lyft app began on 9 September, and the depot opened on 2 October. The Lyft robotaxis fleet now runs on Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, with the Ojai model, built on a Zeekr base with Waymo sensors fitted in Mesa, Arizona, set to join it. The staged rollout is the template Lyft wants to repeat in other cities.
Lyft robotaxis and the Nashville fleet growth
Lyft said on Thursday it expects to significantly grow the Waymo fleet it services in Nashville by the end of the year, adding Waymo’s latest Ojai vehicles. The Lyft robotaxis fleet in the city is run from an 80,000 square foot depot that opened about a month earlier, and Flexdrive has serviced the Nashville fleet since June. Waymo operates more than 100 vehicles across a 60 square mile area in Nashville, according to Bloomberg.
Lyft earns money in Nashville in two ways, according to chief financial officer Michael Brous, who spoke to Reuters. The company is paid for Waymo rides booked through its app, and it takes a fee for each available vehicle that it maintains, charges and cleans. Brous declined to give the size of the fleet or its utilisation, two common measures of a robotaxi service’s progress, but he was upbeat about the partnership. Airport rides on Waymo vehicles are also coming soon on the Lyft app.
The Lyft robotaxis model is unusual because Lyft is both a partner and a supplier. It earns from rides on its own app and from the fee it charges for keeping each car ready, which gives it income even when a car is not carrying a passenger. Risher put it plainly on the call. “A car sitting around, not ready to go or a car not getting demand is not making any money,” he said. The Lyft robotaxis bet is that doing the unglamorous work of charging, cleaning and maintaining the cars is a business in its own right.
Lyft robotaxis and the wider partnerships
Beyond Nashville, Lyft has partnered with Baidu’s Apollo Go to offer autonomous rides in London through its FREENOW platform. Baidu’s RT6 robotaxi is undergoing safety and validation tests with a safety driver, and the companies aim to begin commercial service in 2027. Waymo’s co-chief executive, Tekedra Mawakana, told Bloomberg that the company would end its exclusivity agreement with Uber in Austin and Atlanta from January 2028, which could open more room for Lyft.
Brous also sounded a note of caution, telling Reuters that robotaxis would take a long time to scale meaningfully, citing hardware, regulation, operational challenges and a broader backlash against AI over data centres and job losses. Lyft reported third quarter revenue of 1,822 million dollars, below the market estimate of 1.92 billion dollars, while adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 47 percent year over year to 203.9 million dollars. The Lyft robotaxis bet is growing, but the numbers show it is still early.