Lyft has “no plans to slow down [its] self-driving programs,” said David Baga, Chief Business Officer of the ride-hailing app.
“We remain focused on our self-driving program, so we continue to develop, and test, and eventually deploy self-driving,” he told Cheddar Thursday.
His comments come in light of Uber’s fatal driverless car crash in Arizona last week, which forced that company to hit the brakes on all its autonomous testing. Nvidia and Toyota paused their programs, too.
The Uber incident, thought to be the first involving a self-driving vehicle, also sparked a wide-ranging debate about whether the entire industry needs more oversight.
Ironically, though, Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google parent Alphabet, took the opportunity to jump further into its autonomous business, announcing a collaboration with Jaguar Land Rover this week to roll out driverless SUVs by 2020.
Jaguar’s Product Planning Manager Dave Larsen [reiterated](https://cheddar.com/videos/jaguar-exec-waymos-technology-would-have-avoided-ubers-fatal-crash) his faith that Waymo’s technology and software “would’ve been able to avoid” the tragedy that involved Uber’s car.
- **Related:** [Watch](https://cheddar.com/videos/first-look-at-the-waymo-powered-jaguar-i-pace-suv) Jaguar’s Dave Larsen give Cheddar a first look at the Waymo-powered I-PACE at the New York International Auto Show.
For its part, Lyft dove into the autonomous industry last year when it announced it will start creating the technology in-house. Prior to that, the company was working with third-parties like Ford and Boston-based nuTonomy, essentially offloading the larger costs of the projects.
Driverless tech aside, Lyft is also gaining ground on its main rival in the core ride-hailing business. As Uber has faced one scandal after another, Lyft is picking up the slack.
Its Business unit saw share of the corporate travel space rise to more than 18 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to 7.7 percent the year before. It also expects to hit a $1 billion run rate for revenue by the end of the year.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/lyft-cbo-no-plans-to-slow-down-self-driving-technology).
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