Ride-hailing company Lyft lost $135.7 million in the third quarter due to the shutdown of autonomous vehicle company Argo AI, in which Lyft had a small stake.
Late last month, Argo AI closed its doors as its main backers, Ford and Volkswagen, pulled their investments in order to focus on more near-term goals like advanced driver assistance systems in passenger vehicles.
Lyft and Argo were working together to test autonomous ride-hailing using Argo’s tech on the Lyft platform. The two companies had launched public robotaxi services in Austin, Texas in September and Miami, Florida in December of last year. Both of those services have now been discontinued, a Lyft spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Lyft did not say how it will adjust its AV strategy in the future, but the company has also partnered with Motional, another AV tech company, to launch robotaxis in Las Vegas in August.
Lyft’s losses incurred by the Argo shutdown only account for about a third of th …
