Lyft has begun matching riders in Nashville with fully driverless Waymo vehicles directly inside its app, making Nashville the first U.S. city where Waymo robotaxis are bookable through both the Waymo app and a competing ride-hailing platform at the same time7,9.
The service went live on September 9. Riders who request a Standard, Priority Pickup, Wait & Save, or Extra Comfort ride within Waymo's central Nashville service area may be matched with a driverless vehicle at no surcharge. Users can decline a driverless match or opt out of autonomous rides entirely. Routes must start and end inside Waymo's existing zone, which the company has described as roughly 60 square miles covering Downtown and Broadway, North Nashville and Germantown, East Nashville, Midtown, and South Nashville. Waymo has been offering rides in Nashville since April and operates more than a hundred vehicles in the area.
Flexdrive runs the depot
Unlike Uber's Waymo arrangements, Lyft's wholly owned subsidiary Flexdrive handles charging, cleaning, maintenance, and depot logistics for the Waymo fleet2. Flexdrive is opening a purpose-built 80,000-square-foot Nashville depot in October8. Lyft said Flexdrive will employ more than 70 full-time workers in Nashville this year, many of them former Lyft drivers. Wired reported that roughly half of the 72 workers at the temporary depot had previously driven on Lyft's network.
Nashville is the second U.S. city where Lyft offers autonomous trips, after its May Mobility pilot in Midtown Atlanta. It is also the first market pairing Waymo and Lyft; the partnership was first announced a year ago. Human-driven rides continue to be available on the Lyft app.
Uber's exclusivity narrows
Uber currently offers Waymo rides exclusively in two U.S. cities. But Waymo told Uber earlier this year that in January 2028 it will begin offering service through its own app in the two markets covered by their exclusivity agreement. Reuters reported in June that Waymo and Uber ended their Phoenix pilot after an intentionally limited deployment of just over a dozen vehicles. Uber has said it will commit more than $10 billion over the next few years toward becoming a go-to app for hailing autonomous vehicles, and has invested in driverless technology developers and partnered with dozens of companies, including several Chinese robotaxi providers.
Lyft sold its own autonomous-driving unit, Level 5, to Toyota's Woven Planet Holdings for $550 million in 20213. The company's current strategy is to serve as the platform and fleet manager that multiple self-driving companies can plug into. Lyft Vice President of Business Development Jeremy Bird said the company began 2026 focused on its partnership with Waymo in Nashville and with Baidu in London. Lyft is also working with Baidu to bring Apollo Go autonomous vehicles to Germany and the UK, with initial deployments planned for 2026 pending regulatory approval.
ANALYSIS Lyft's Flexdrive model inverts the typical ride-hail-plus-robotaxi arrangement: rather than simply dispatching third-party vehicles, Lyft is taking on the physical fleet operations layer, converting driver labor costs into depot labor costs. The Nashville launch, combined with Waymo's stated plan to exit its Uber exclusivity windows by January 2028, positions Lyft to compete for Waymo supply in additional cities on the strength of that operational offering.
Waymo and Lyft said availability will continue to grow gradually over the coming weeks. Lyft named Senthil Padmanabhan, formerly a vice president of engineering at eBay, as chief technology officer effective July 20.