Google’s parent company, Alphabet is in talks with the ride-sharing app and Uber rival-Lyft, to invest up to $1 billion.
Interestingly, Alphabet has previously invested in Uber, but that relationship has recently nosedived as Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, has sued Uber claiming that an engineer who left Waymo for Uber stole and shared company information.
Alphabet and Lyft declined to comment on the report.
It is noteworthy to add that Alphabet is already collaborating with Lyft via Waymo, its self-driving car unit, on autonomous vehicle technology.
Lyft had announced last year that it would be expanding its work in self-driving cars and was aiming to have autonomous vehicles account for the majority of Lyft rides within five years.
So, if Alphabet decides to invest the reported billion dollars in Lyft, it will further intensify competition with Uber and of course, it will boost their work on self-driving cars.
Till date, Lyft has raised over $2.5 billion and the ride-sharing company recently raised $600 million in April 2017.
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After that investment, John Zimmer, the co-founder of Lyft said in a statement: “We have big plans on the horizon, and will continue investing in new technology and hospitality in order to create experiences that passengers and drivers will love.”
We guess these big plans are gradually coming to fruition.
