Ford Motor Company will begin working with ride-hailing service Lyft in a bid to commercialize autonomous ride-hailing vehicles.
The pair will collaborate with technology company Argo AI to "bring together all of the parts necessary to create a viable autonomous ride-hailing service."
The motor manufacturing giant will deploy its vehicles and safety drivers, using Argo's software, on the Lyft network of services.
The project will begin in Miami later this year and then in Austin, Texas, in 2022.
A statement from the trio says: "This initial deployment phase will lay the groundwork for scaling operations, as the parties are now working to finalize agreements aiming to deploy at least 1,000 autonomous vehicles on the Lyft network, across multiple markets over the next five years."
Part of the agreement will see Lyft receive 2.5% of Argo's stock.
The move comes just three months after Lyft sold its self-driving vehicle division to Woven Planet Holdings, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, for $550 million.
Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green says: "This collaboration marks the first time all the pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together this way. Each company brings the scale, knowledge and capability in their area of expertise that is necessary to make autonomous ride-hailing a business reality."
Source: PhocusWire