Waymo and Lyft Bringing Autonomous Rides to Nashville in 2026
Nashville residents and visitors will soon have a new way to get around town without a driver.
Waymo, in partnership with Lyft (Nasdaq: LYFT), announced it will launch fully autonomous ride-hailing in Nashville in 2026. At first, riders will be able to book a ride through the Waymo app, with integration into the Lyft app expected later in the year.
It’s not yet clear whether riders will be able to choose between a human driver and an autonomous vehicle, though Waymo said more details will be shared closer to launch.
Waymo vehicles began mapping Nashville streets in April, initially with safety drivers behind the wheel. Over the coming months, the company plans to test its fleet in fully autonomous mode. The cars use a combination of cameras and radar to navigate.
Waymo’s ride-hailing service is already live in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta, with Miami and Washington, D.C., slated for 2026 expansions. Nashville marks the first city where Waymo has partnered with Lyft — in other markets, it has worked with Uber.
The addition of autonomous vehicles comes as Nashville continues to diversify its transportation options. Voters recently approved Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s multibillion-dollar transit plan, and Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. announced a proposed downtown-to-airport tunnel project earlier this year.
As part of the deal, Lyft will use its Flexdrive subsidiary to provide fleet management services, including maintenance, charging, infrastructure and depot operations. Lyft will also build a dedicated AV facility to support the rollout.
“Lyft’s extensive fleet management capabilities through Flexdrive make them an ideal partner for expanding to Nashville,” said Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana.
“This partnership brings together best-in-class autonomous vehicles with best-in-class customer experience,” Lyft CEO David Risher added. “Waymo has proven that its autonomous technology works at scale. When combined with Lyft’s customer-obsession and world-class fleet management capabilities, it’s two great tastes that go great together.”
