Lyft CEO John Zimmer says the company hit 100 million rides in three months by treating drivers well, unlike Uber. He predicts cars will shift from ownership to subscription services over the next 10-20 years, and argues that even with self-driving vehicles, Lyft will need drivers to host passengers in autonomous fleets.
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We're going to keep doing what we have been doing. It took us 4 years to hit the first 100 million rides, and we did that in the last 3 months. And so we're moving incredibly fast. And by focusing on our drivers, treating them well, and our passengers, providing them with the best customer experience, we're going to keep making progress.
How you've differentiated yourself from Uber, which has obviously been under a lot of pressure this year by focusing on the driver.
Yeah, Lyft's been around for 5 years. My background's in hospitality, and it was always obvious to us when you take care of the people that are at the front lines of your business, that the business will do well.
Right now, SoftBank, I want to talk a little bit about them because they've emerged as a major player in the ridesharing space. They've made a big bet on Didi, which has also invested in Lyft, Grab. Ola Masason has said that he's interested in Uber or Lyft. What does that mean for your space? And are we going to see more consolidation in the ridesharing space?
I think there's, there's going to be continued growing excitement for what's happening in our space. Every year in the United States, $2 trillion is spent on car ownership. And yet we use our cars just 4% of the time. So it's really inefficient. And over the next 10 to 20 years, that spend will transition from car ownership to people accessing transportation as a service. We think eventually people will be subscribing to Lyft plans instead of owning a car.
Do we see more consolidation with all the money spread out in the space? And have you met with Masa?
I don't— I don't know that we'll see more consolidation in the near term. I have seen him in passing at a conference. But, but not formally.
I'm going to talk about IPO as well, because there's reports that you guys are selecting, getting close to selecting an IPO advisor. Uber has said that it will go public by 2019. Will we see a Lyft IPO before then?
We, we will go public when Lyft is ready and we have nothing else to announce.
Let me ask you then, with Uber coming out with a deadline by 2019, does that put more pressure on Lyft? Are you feeling that from investors or even employees?
No, I mean, I don't, I don't think putting a deadline is appropriate. I think doing the right thing for the business at the right time based on what's happening internally as well as what's happening in the external markets is how that decision should be made.
Okay. Melissa has a question for you back in New York.
Yeah.
Hey.
Hey, John, it's Melissa Lee at CNBC. I want to ask about the GM-Lyft partnership. GM's got a, what, a 9% stake in Lyft right now. When should we expect to see self-driving Lyft's?
So our self-driving strategy— GM has been a great investor. Our self-driving strategy is twofold. One, we're creating an open platform. So think of Lyft as a network, maybe like AT&T, where people launch their different devices on it. And so that open network has allowed us to sign up multiple partners that will be launching their— testing their autonomous vehicles over the next, let's say, 12 to 24 months. In addition, we're also building our own self-driving system so that we learn about how to build that system and that we ensure we have access to that technology when it comes to full fruition.
So when will it be used in the marketplace? Then going back to the original question, if I'm the user of Lyft, when can I actually hail a ride and get into a car with no driver in it? I'm sure a lot of drivers out there, Lyft drivers, are listening to this very closely.
Yeah. So we're not announcing a specific date at when you'll be able to access autonomous vehicle. But, but to the point about drivers, we don't believe there will ever be a need for less drivers even in an autonomous world. What you have today between Lyft and Uber is just 0.4% of miles traveled in the United States are on these networks. And as we move towards transportation as a service, there's going to be a lot more need for drivers. And in a fully autonomous future, you may say, yeah, but what about when the cars only driving by itself and that's what everyone wants. In that world, when you have 6 or 8 or 10 people in a car, you're going to want hosts in that vehicle. And so I think there's going to be a greater opportunity for jobs in that future where transportation is provided as a service.
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