Waymo Nashville rides now test a two-app robotaxi service

Lyft riders in central Nashville can now be matched with a fully autonomous Waymo vehicle, making the city the first market where the same robotaxi fleet is available in both companies’ apps. The change turns a planned partnership into a live test of whether one driverless fleet can serve two competing ride-hailing marketplaces.

In its September 9 announcement, Lyft said eligible requests for Standard, Priority Pickup, Wait & Save and Extra Comfort rides can be matched with a Waymo at no extra cost. The route must begin and end in the defined central-Nashville service area, which includes Downtown/Broadway, North Nashville/Germantown, East Nashville, Midtown and South Nashville.

The announcement does not make a Waymo match compulsory. Lyft says riders can decline an autonomous vehicle or opt out entirely, while human drivers remain available in and around the service area. Vehicle availability is limited initially and is expected to increase gradually, so the rollout is a service expansion rather than evidence that Nashville’s conventional rideshare market has been replaced.

One fleet, two booking paths

Waymo had already opened fully autonomous rides in Nashville through its own app; its 2025 announcement said Lyft availability would follow in 2026. Lyft’s update adds a second booking path to the same vehicles. Lyft says it and Waymo will dispatch the fleet dynamically across both networks, a practical difference from a marketing partnership: a car’s cleaning, charging, positioning and rider demand must be managed across the two apps.

Lyft’s Flexdrive subsidiary is handling that local fleet work and says an 80,000-square-foot Nashville depot is due to open in October. The company says the facility is bringing more than 70 full-time roles this year, including technicians and fleet-operations jobs. Those are company figures and plans, not a measure of the partnership’s long-term employment effect.

Axios independently reported that Nashville is the first market where riders can call Waymo vehicles through both the Waymo and Lyft apps. Its reporting also describes Flexdrive’s role in fleet management, supporting Lyft’s account of the operational arrangement.

The immediate test is narrower than a citywide robotaxi launch: can a shared fleet keep wait times and availability useful while riders retain a choice of human-driven trips? Lyft and Waymo have not published Nashville trip volumes, vehicle counts or service-quality data, so those results are still unavailable.