Toyota acquires Lyft’s autonomous driving unit for $550 million

Toyota just purchased Lyft’s self-driving division, Level 5, for its subsidiary, Woven Planet Holdings. The $550 million acquisition deal happened after the latter placed its autonomous driving unit up for sale in a move to avoid further losses and gain profits from the transaction instead.

The partners’ agreement in the acquisition deal

The deal will push Lyft and Woven Planet to work together on making big improvements on autonomous driving technology safety. In any case, the agreement also includes a multi-year non-exclusive commercial contract between the companies to hasten the development and, as mentioned before, develop safety for automated driving machinery.

“Today’s announcement launches Lyft into the next phase of an incredible journey to bring our mission to life,” Logan Green, Lyft’s CEO and co-founder, said in a press release. “Lyft has spent nine years building a transportation network that is uniquely capable of scaling AVs. This partnership between Woven Planet and Lyft represents a major step forward for autonomous vehicle technology.”

Woven Planet is one of Toyota’s subsidiaries that work on autonomous technology, and it was revealed that it would be paying Lyft an upfront fee of $200 million, and the remaining $350 million will be settled in cash for the period of five years.

The advantage of the acquisition

With the merger of their firms, Woven Planet and Lyft are looking forward to the creation of an excellent team of researchers and engineers that they employ. The two have a combined number of 1,200 experts around the world, and they can work together to create unmatched technologies.

Moreover, CNN Business reported that the deal would also allow Toyota’s subsidiary that is based in Tokyo, to expand overseas and hold offices in London and the famed tech hub Silicon Valley. As for Lyft that needed funds to recover from losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the monetary gains from the acquisition are more than enough to help it get back on track.

“This acquisition assembles a dream team of world-class engineers and scientists to deliver safe mobility technology for the world,” Woven Planet’s CEO, James Kuffner, explained. “I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Level 5’s world-class engineers and experts into our company, which will greatly strengthen our efforts.”