Waymo starts matching Nashville riders on Lyft, its first city served through two apps
Lyft users in Nashville can now be paired with a driverless Waymo car, making it the first market where the company's vehicles can be booked on two apps at once.
- 500,000
- 1 million
- 14
- more than 70
What Happened
Waymo and Lyft announced on September 9, 2026 that Nashville riders can begin being matched with fully autonomous Waymo cars through the Lyft app today. Nashville is the inaugural location offering Waymo cars across both booking apps, giving riders more choice, better reliability and easier access. Availability is expected to expand over the coming weeks.
- Extra Comfort, Standard, Wait & Save and Priority Pickup are the ride types eligible to match.
- A Waymo match costs the same as a regular Lyft ride in central Nashville.
- Trips must start and finish within the zone where Lyft offers Waymo.
- Service covers Midtown, South Nashville, East Nashville, Downtown/Broadway and North Nashville/Germantown.
- Both companies dispatch from a single fleet, sending cars dynamically across the two networks.
- A rider can decline an autonomous car or switch matching off altogether, and human drivers keep serving the area.
14
Waymo says its driverless service is active in 14 U.S. cities without a human safety driver in the car.
In Nashville, Flexdrive handles the Waymo fleet and intends to open a purpose-built depot of 80,000 square feet there in October. The operation is adding more than 70 full-time positions in the city this year. Those roles span skilled technicians as well as coordinators for fleet operations and service.
Waymo passes 500,000 paid autonomous rides per week in the U.S.
Waymo cars go live on Lyft in Nashville.
Flexdrive's Nashville depot is scheduled to open.
- 500,000
- 1 million
Why this matters
Nashville is the first place where a Waymo ride can be summoned through either Waymo's own app or Lyft's, a test of whether one shared fleet across two networks broadens access. Riders keep the right to refuse a driverless car, and human drivers continue serving the city, so the change adds capacity rather than replacing anyone. It also brings more than 70 new full-time jobs to the area this year.
Terms in This Story
- autonomous vehicle
- A car that drives itself without a person operating the controls.
- safety driver
- A trained person seated in a self-driving car ready to take over if needed.
- fleet management
- The work of maintaining, storing and dispatching a group of vehicles.
A brief summary; details can be imperfect — always verify against the original source.