General Motors and Lyft Testing Driverless, Electric Cars; Taxis to Hit the Road Soon

Google's driverless car research program has been one the most conspicuous initiative that started out in Silicon Valley. Its recent partnership with Fiat Chrysler allows the tech giant to gain a sizeable lead in the self-driving car development. But maybe not for long as General Motors and Lyft enter the fray.

Detroit-based General Motors is keen on punching a hole in the competition as the company closes in the technological gap. The automotive giant is now embarking on road testing a fleet of autonomous Chevrolet Bolt electric taxis in partnership with Lyft, Uber's direct competitor in ride-hailing business.

As per Wall Street Journal, the car manufacturing company intends to make use of Lyft's increasingly growing horde of drivers as the primary test market for Bolt while publicizing its driverless electric vehicles to the public. In addition, GM is also pursuing a $1-billion buy-out of San Francisco-based developer of self-driving technology, Cruise Automation. This would allow the company to leverage new technology acquistion while taking advantage of Lyft's wide cab network for launching its ambitious autonomous-driving initiative.

For its part, Lyft is reportedly working on to deploy GM-manufactured self-driving cars within a year, at least, in one unidentified city. Technically speaking, a human driver would still be around for the time being, as per law, in case of malfunction. The company, however, hopes to eventually make human drivers 'obsolete' in the future, BGR reported.

In another development, while Lyft and Uber are obvious rivals in the ride-sharing business, they are currently on the same side amid a controversial proposed law in Austin, Texas requiring drivers to be fingerprinted. Both companies vowed to leave the city should voters choose to approve Proposition 1- the first fingerprinting-ride-share legislation being subjected to a plebiscite in the United States.

Both companies argued that additional backgrounds are unnecessary but advocates of stringent regulations demand said that the proposed legislation is a response to the Kalamazoo shooting leaving some people dead after an Uber driver sprayed bullets randomly on unsuspecting people according to CNBC news.