Lyft Self-Driving Taxis Coming to Dallas Next YearLyft Self-Driving Taxis Coming to Dallas Next Year

The self-driving taxi market is continuing to heat up, with Lyft announcing it will offer driverless rides in Dallas next year.

Customers in the city will be able to book robotaxis on Lyft that use tech from Israeli company Mobileye and are owned by Japanese fleet expert Marubeni, as part of a new deal which Lyft CEO David Risher confirmed via a post on X. 

Risher said: “Last November, we shared our collab with @Mobileye to bring @Lyft-ready autonomous vehicles to our platform. Today we’re welcoming @Marubeni_Corp, one of the world’s industry-leading auto and fleet financing corporations, to join us on this journey.

“As soon as 2026, @Marubeni-owned cars w/@Mobileye AV tech will launch in @CityofDallas on the Lyft platform.” Intriguingly, Risher added that there were “thousands more AVs/cities to follow.”

Marubeni is reported to manage in excess of 900,000 vehicles via various subsidiaries and joint ventures, and will use insights from Lyft’s Flexdrive rental and fleet unit to get the “most out of the vehicles,” Risher continued.

What vehicles these will be is not yet clear, as Lyft has not revealed which automaker it will partner with, although Mobileye solutions are fitted in cars from a number of manufacturers, including those made by Volkswagen Group brands, Nissan and Ford.

Related:Ride Sharing Service Adds More Self-Driving Vehicles

It’s also not clear how many self-driving taxis will be available in Dallas when the service launches, although Risher did promise to share further developments in the months ahead.

Lyft’s decision underscores how the self-driving taxi market is gathering significant momentum across the US.

Current leader Waymo is now operating in Phoenix , San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin, and will offer rides on Uber in Atlanta in 2025, plus launch in Miami in 2026. It has also revealed plans to test in 10 new US cities this year, including San Diego, Las Vegas and New Orleans.

Tesla, meanwhile, also has its eye on a slice of the pie, with CEO Elon Musk recently claiming it would offer a “paid service” in Austin by the middle of the year – even though its unsupervised Full Self Driving tech still does not have regulatory approval.

Amazon-owned Zoox, meanwhile, has its sights set firmly on Vegas and San Francisco.

Arguably the rival Lyft will be most focused on though is Uber, which also aims to offer self-driving taxis in Dallas courtesy of a deal with AVRide. Uber already features driverless Waymo taxis on its platform in Phoenix and, as mentioned, also has an Atlanta tie-up with it in the pipeline, plus another in Austin. 

Related:Volkswagen, Mobileye Strike New Self-Driving Car Deal

In addition, Uber is working with Chinese giant BYD to develop self-driving taxis for the platform, and U.K. AI specialist Wayve.