Lyft is selling its autonomous vehicle division to Toyota

Fewer than six months after Uber offloaded its self-driving tech development unit, Lyft is ditching its own too.

Lyft is selling its self-driving unit to Woven Planet, a subsidiary of Toyota, in a cash deal worth $550 million, both companies announced on Monday afternoon.

The deal, which constitutes $200 million upfront and the rest over the next five years, takes Lyft's self-driving tech development expenses off its ledgers and also locks in Woven Planet to a partnership that will see the subsidiary using Lyft's platform to commercialise and manage its future robotaxi services.

The acquisition will see Lyft's existing autonomous vehicle development team, known as Level 5, move under Woven Planet Holdings' umbrella; Lyft's own consumer-experience and fleet management team focused on AV will stay in-house, rebranding from Lyft Open Platform to Lyft Autonomous.  Read more...