Lyft Picks Up $25m And A Self-Driving Car Deal From Jaguar Land Rover

With Uber making headlines for all the wrong reasons lately, arch rival Lyft has been focusing on cutting deals and raising cash, with Jaguar Land Rover latest to invest. The automaker has pumped $25m into the ride-sharing service, courtesy of its InMotion mobility services business. However, the deal will also include Jaguar Land Rover supplying cars to Lyft drivers, which could mean a big upgrade on your next commute.

Exactly which vehicles that will mean is unclear at this stage, as is the mechanism by which drivers will access them. It's likely to be through Lyft's existing Express Drive program, which offers drivers for the service rental cars on a week-by-week basis. Intended both to get those people without a suitable car behind the wheel and up and running, and those who have their own vehicle but don't want to put ride-sharing mileage on it, the fees include both insurance and maintenance.

For Lyft, it's an opportunity to add some more upscale options to its fleet. On the Jaguar side, that could include the XE entry-level sports sedan or the well-selling F-PACE crossover SUV. Land Rover's Range Rover models, meanwhile, would be just much at home doing airport runs for those wanting a Town Car alternative. They'd fit in well with the recently announced Lyft Lux and Lyft SUV options, indeed.

However it's what's coming down the line that the two companies are most excited about. Jaguar Land Rover will be using the deal to test out its upcoming autonomous vehicle technologies, in addition to its new mobility services. Brought together under the InMotion umbrella, that portfolio already includes peer-to-peer car-sharing services, delivery services that can drop off packages to the trunk of an owner's car, and big data aggregation pulling together masses of information fed into the system by the suite of sensors already installed on modern vehicles.

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"Personal mobility and smart transportation is evolving," Sebastian Peck, InMotion Managing Director, said of the deal, "and this new collaborative venture will provide a real-world platform helping us develop our connected and autonomous services." The two companies had already had a connection, with InMotion having previously invested in Lyft partner SPLT. Operating in Detroit, MI, SPLT offers non-emergency medical transportation when people can't drive themselves.

It's the latest in a general series of investments in ride-sharing and alternative transportation business, as automakers try to expand their reach solely from being car companies. General Motors, for instance, has already invested half a billion dollars in Lyft, and the two firms have been testing self-driving Bolt EV electric cars.