This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Lyft’s dramatic return to the big leagues of the autonomous vehicle industry through a surprise partnership with Waymo in Nashville, including fleet management, sending Lyft stock soaring 20% while Uber dropped 5%.

Grayson and Walt examine the strategic implications of this non-exclusive deal, where a shared fleet will operate across both Lyft and Waymo networks, with Lyft leveraging its Flexdrive subsidiary for fleet management. This deal, marks Waymo’s second partnership with Lyft, correcting widespread media reports that overlooked a small 2019 Phoenix pilot program that quietly disappeared from public view.

The conversation expands into Waymo’s incremental progress at San Francisco Airport (SFO) which is limited to the “kiss and fly” area rather than curbside access, and what this signals for Waymo’s pending highway operations. Grayson predicts Waymo will begin operating on highways in the Bay Area by December 2025, while they debate sensor stack limitations that may be preventing current Jaguar fleets from highway deployment. 

Grayson and Walt also analyze Bot Auto‘s milestone achievement of a fully driverless 40-mile commercial run accomplished with just $45 million in funding, contrasting this efficiency against billion-dollar competitors still operating with safety drivers. The episode concludes with Tesla and Uber’s freight partnership, which Walt characterizes as a potential “Trojan horse” for Tesla’s autonomous trucking ambitions.

Episode Chapters

0:00 Lyft / Waymo Partnership

7:01 Lyft / Waymo History 

8:39 Nashville Market 

12:17 Impact on the Uber / Waymo Relationship 

15:31 Waymo’s SFO Expansion 

17:13 Waymo’s “Great Highway Expansion” 

20:39 Waymo’s Emerging Zeekr Risk in Tennessee 

23:00 Waymo’s Airport Unlocks 

25:25 Bot Auto Goes Driver-Out

29:30 Going Driver-Out without an OEM Deal

33:47 Tesla Semi / Uber Freight Partnership 

37:24 Next Week

Recorded on Thursday, September 18, 2025

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