GM just joined forces with Lyft in a major way

Lyft has raised another $US1 billion in funding and gained a powerful ally in General Motors in the fight with Uber to gain a fleet of autonomous vehicles.

The partnership between GM, America’s largest automaker, and ride-sharing app Lyft is designed to create a “network of on-demand autonomous vehicles” that would see Lyft deploying driverless cars to service customers nationwide. “Meanwhile, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer shared with BuzzFeed that “[GM and Lyft] both believe that autonomous vehicles will be introduced through a service like Lyft rather than through individuals owning autonomous vehicles”.

“We had a really common view of the future”, said GM President Dan Ammann in an interview with Reuters.

The second is giving Lyft drivers easy access to renting GM cars.

Together Lyft and GM plan to open a network of US hubs where Lyft drivers will be able to use GM vehicles.

The future of cars-driverless or otherwise-is increasingly looking like one in which people don’t just stop driving, they also stop owning. The announcement comes as Lyft closes a $1 billion funding round, half of which came from GM.

As for GM, this deal is not only about backing Lyft with cash and a seat on the company’s board.

Lyft’s competitors include Sidecar and Uber, whose various ride-hailing services have disrupted traditional taxi and other transportation businesses in numerous countries around the world since it was founded in 2009.

Lyft is present in more than 190 USA cities and has over 40% market share in Austin and San Francisco. Many are also migrating to cities, where the combination of public transit and ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft are rapidly making vehicle ownership less necessary.

GM stock closed Monday at $33.31, down 2.1%. Several new and existing investors including Janus Capital Management, Rakuten, Didi Kuaidi and Alibaba also invested in this round.

With the likes of Google moving into the auto industry by way of autonomous driving tech, General Motors (GM) has bet big on Lyft.