WEBVTT - Lyft CEO David Risher Talks Waymo Partnership 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:07.040 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:11.440 Lift and Weimo are partnering to bring self driving taxis 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.360 to Nashville. Customers will be able to request driver US 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:18.000 rides on both companies platforms, and Lift will provide fleet 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.479 management for Waimo's national operations. Let's get to more with 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.160 Lift CEO David Rischer. This is something you've been working 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.440 on for some time, that's right, and the state of 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.720 plays is very clear. Weimo also has a partnership with 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.280 Uber in different markets. You now have a partnership in Nashville. 0:00:34.640 --> 0:00:37.960 Just explain the rationale for you on why this is 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:40.199 a great go to market for robotaxi. 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.400 Well, as you know, we've been saying for a while 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:44.760 we think self driving cars are going to be hugely 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:47.920 market expanding for ride share. It's a really good product. 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.160 And then when we looked at potential partners of course 0:00:50.159 --> 0:00:52.040 Weimo has to be at the top of the list. 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.160 The great thing about this partnership is it does two things. 0:00:55.320 --> 0:00:58.280 It supplies demand. So if you're in the self driving 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:00.520 car business, you've got to have demand. We got lots 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.400 of demand every single day, and we do it in 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.840 a very integrated way. But the other thing is, as 0:01:04.840 --> 0:01:07.440 you just mentioned, it supplies fleet management, and that sounds 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:09.600 kind of geeky, but it's really important that every one 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.080 of those cars be ready to drive twenty four to 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:13.920 seven if needed, and that's something we're really good at. 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:15.080 We've been doing that for a long time. 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:19.880 So you're emphasizing the sort of capital light business model 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.440 for you, right. The counter argument is the Tesla or 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:25.600 the zooks one, which is control the full stack hardware 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:31.039 software operationally the app the consumer interfaces with. Would you 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:33.679 argue that you can scale this faster, going this route, 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:34.959 go to more cities quicker? 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:38.399 I would? Yeah. I mean this allows every company to specialize, right, 0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:42.000 so waymo can really focus on providing great self driving technology. 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:44.240 The way Moore Driver is obviously a great product. They 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.959 partner with OEMs, the car manufacturers that can choose the 0:01:47.000 --> 0:01:50.080 best car form, and then we can provide the fleet 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:52.280 management as they say, that keeps the cars clean and 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:54.600 charged and ready to go, as well as the demand 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:57.440 so that anytime a person wants a car, they can 0:01:57.440 --> 0:01:59.280 get one, or they can get a driver car, right, 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:00.960 I mean they can get so it's I think it's 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:02.000 a great division of labor. 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.440 Let's talk about that fleet management flex drive because you're 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:07.000 going to be building, you're going to be putting some 0:02:07.040 --> 0:02:10.040 cabal expenditure to work. David, Why does that make sense 0:02:10.080 --> 0:02:11.320 and when will that be finished? 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:14.919 So we've been in the flex drive world. Let me 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.600 explain for a second. So about a decade ago, Lift 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.919 decided that for a certain type of driver, it really 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.280 makes sense to have cars that they can rent right 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.919 on the platform and they can do we can take 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.200 care of the maintenance and making sure that those cars 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:32.760 are always ready to drive. So that's what we've been 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:35.120 doing for about a decade now. So when we look 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:37.160 at the autonomous vehicle world, you know, look when you 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:39.440 see a car driving around the city, it looks like magic. 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:40.880 It looks like no one had to touch it. But 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:42.920 no someone had to charge it, someone had to clean it, 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.120 someone has to maintain it. Someone probably has to reboot 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:47.040 it from time to time. And we're really good at that. 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:48.960 So as you say we're building a new depot there, 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:50.760 we've got a small one. We're building a bigger one 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:53.160 for this partnership. And what it does is it allows 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:55.760 the cars to be ready to drive, ready to drive. 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.799 Think about so when you travel on an airline and 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:00.760 you know you know that of course they want the 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:03.080 airplane in the air, but they also needed to be 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:05.320 ready to fly at all times. They want that turnaround 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:07.239 to be super fast. And that's what flex drive does. 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:09.399 It means that people like WYMO can get the most 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.079 out of our asset, which is super good for them. 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:14.800 Look today, investors love this announcement and the shares a rising. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:17.560 Shares have been doing well all year because you've had 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:19.920 three straight quarters of profitability. David, how are you going 0:03:19.960 --> 0:03:23.360 to finance what is a little less asset like is 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.959 building these facilities to help keep all our auto cars clean. 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:30.440 Yeah. So, as I say, because we've been in the 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:33.320 flex drive business, the subsidiary business for a long time, 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.040 we've actually had capital deployed to that for a long time. 0:03:37.040 --> 0:03:39.840 We have about twenty four locations in about fifteen different 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:42.080 states across the United States, which I think gives you 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.640 a sense of how this kind of partnership could scale 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:47.120 over time. And we own some of those cars ourselves. 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.160 Others of those cars are financed by other groups. So 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.360 the good news is this won't be a significant change 0:03:51.360 --> 0:03:54.080 to the current strategy. It's just sort of a revectoring. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:57.080 Let's say, of the money we spend more towards. 0:03:56.800 --> 0:04:00.120 Autonomous okay, scale over time this morning, Bloomberg type you 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:02.880 some Marguerite Galleryini put this table together, you know the 0:04:02.920 --> 0:04:05.360 table right It explains the roadmap from here. So let's 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.160 look at it together. This is twenty twenty six and 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:12.080 it focuses on Weimo principally. But there's you there, right, Nashville. 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.760 You are going to come up against suba in negotiating 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.960 with Weimo for cities that are not yet claimed for 0:04:19.400 --> 0:04:21.919 What are the advantages that you're going to present to 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:26.000 win that business with Weimo against Duba and how much 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.719 you're gonna have to give up, you know, to get 0:04:28.720 --> 0:04:29.360 a deal done. 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:31.479 Yeah, So I think the way I would look at 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.200 that is one of the reasons we were so called 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:36.919 patient in working through this deal because it took a while. 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.240 It was we wanted to come up with something that 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.880 is good for Weimo, good for Lyft, and good for riders, 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:44.719 and that's hard to do. It's hard to have, you know, 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:46.760 kind of a three away win. We feel really good 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:48.400 about it and feel like this is a great model 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:50.239 for us to expand to other cities in the future. 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.760 But look, city by city, you know, some places we're 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:54.880 actually going to compete with WEIMO itself, right because for 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:56.719 example here in San Francisco, they've got. 0:04:56.560 --> 0:04:58.720 Their own appreciate that admission, Yeah. 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:00.320 Of course, So this is something we you have to 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:01.919 kind of recognize and say, how do we come up 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.560 with a construct that is really durable and frankly can 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:06.760 benefit all the companies and then the other guys will 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:08.440 do what they do and you know, we'll see who 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:09.120 does a better job. 0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.480 Look, people are going to accuse me of wanting to 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.080 create a headline here, but it's a really important question. 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.560 Tesla and Zookes are committed to their own go to 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.159 market model. Right, we talked about they control the full stack. 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.440 But have you held discussions with both Tesla and Zoke's 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:26.920 to say, like, look, this is the model we're doing 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.479 with Weimo, we can do something similar. Do you see 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:31.039 that as being realistic? 0:05:31.600 --> 0:05:33.360 So, of course I don't want to come in on, 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.400 you know, conversations we might be having. What I can 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:38.760 tell you is we're talking to everyone who finds the 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.760 partnership model interesting. You know, there are, of course always companies. 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:44.840 Whenever you see a new industry, you have some companies 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.040 that say I want to do it all, and frankly, 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:49.080 if you look back a couple of years ago, just 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.240 about every company in the self driving space was in 0:05:51.279 --> 0:05:53.800 that zone. They wanted to do everything top to bottom. 0:05:54.080 --> 0:05:57.560 I think over time most companies find, particularly when it's 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.760 capital intensive and quite complex, like rideshare and self driving, 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:03.200 is that a division of labor where everyone does what 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.880 they're good at is the best model. But we'll see, 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:07.360 you know, it's still such early. 0:06:07.160 --> 0:06:10.440 Days, but you struck deals with interesting players in Europe, 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:13.400 I do, what's it like working with a Chinese giant? 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:14.800 What were those negotiations like? 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.000 You know? I actually, I'll tell you what was very interesting. 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:20.479 It came together fairly quickly, and in part I think 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.640 is you know, frankly, Chinese companies are kind of built 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:25.320 for speed, you know. They for those of you who 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:26.640 don't know, you know, by do you can sort of 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:29.359 think of them as kind of the Google or Alphabet 0:06:28.720 --> 0:06:32.360 of China. They have many businesses, but self driving cars 0:06:32.360 --> 0:06:34.719 are a very important one for them, and we committed 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:37.080 that we would roll out some of their technology in 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.040 one to two markets we would expect in Europe over 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.240 the next twelve months or so. It's still very early 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.039 days there, but I can tell you they've got really 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.919 high standards for their technology. We're super excited about working 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:49.719 with those guys, and we'll have more to say about 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:51.640 that next year once we start to roll out in Europe. 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.320 One minute, how hard is it to get to New York? 0:06:57.120 --> 0:06:58.719 I mean I can take a flight there pretty easily. 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.280 Also, the ROBOTAXI how hot? When am I going to 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:02.800 have it here? 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:05.760 I love that? You know it's going to take a 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.279 little while. New York is a complex place to do business. 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:10.320 The streets are complicated. You know, there's a lot of 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:12.320 interest there. Look, you know this Caroline, I mean, Lift 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:14.280 has been there for many years. It's super strong in 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.480 New York. We also run the city bike program, as 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:18.640 you know, super excited to bring self driving there someday, 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.320 but that was probably gonna take a little while. Sorry 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:21.520 about that, you can have to wait for ale. 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:23.480 My addiction with the bikes will just have to continue. 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:23.760 Lift. 0:07:23.800 --> 0:07:26.480 See David so as a joy to have you on 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:27.440 the show. Take care,