Lyft and GoMentum Station announced a partnership to test Lyft’s self-driving vehicles at GoMentum Station’s 5,000 acre autonomous vehicle proving grounds located in Concord, California. Managed by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), GoMentum Station provides Lyft with a convenient and secure test facility to rapidly iterate on the development of its self-driving systems. Other companies testing at the station include Sumitomo Electric, Toyota Research Institute, Land Transport Authority of Singapore (LTA) and HMI Technologies from Australia and New Zealand, AAA, Baidu, First Transit, Honda and Acura RLX,.
Last year, Lyft announced that it was building an open self-driving system at the Level 5 Engineering Center, based in Palo Alto, California, working closely with automotive and technology partners. Level 5 is the heart of Lyft’s self-driving division, bringing together a world-class team of hardware and software developers. Through this partnership, Lyft’s vehicles from Level 5 will be tested in Concord at GoMentum Station and help accelerate the introduction of Lyft’s self-driving vehicles to the public.
“At Lyft, we believe in a future where self-driving cars make transportation safer and more accessible to everyone,” said Luc Vincent, VP of Engineering at Lyft. “By partnering with GoMentum Station, we’re able to test our self-driving systems in a secure facility and advance our technology in an efficient way.”
GoMentum Station is rapidly becoming the Bay Area’s premier facility for putting the next generation of transportation technology through its paces. The cutting edge research and collaborative efforts between the public and private sectors are spurring innovation that will improve mobility and the quality of life in Contra Costa County and worldwide.
“We are incredibly proud to be partnering with Lyft – a company who is known for building relationships with the public sector and fostering innovative solutions – because we know their presence at GoMentum Station will help facilitate more mobility options not only for Contra Costa’s residents, but for the entire Bay Area region in the future,” stated Randy Iwasaki, Executive Director of CCTA.
“We are excited to see Lyft, one of the largest innovative transportation companies, join in using Concord’s GoMentum Station – at the forefront of technological advances,” said Edi Birsan, mayor of Concord.
GoMentum Station in Concord, California is the nation’s largest secure testing facility for autonomous and connected vehicle technology. The Contra Costa Transportation Authority and its partners lead a collaborative effort at GoMentum Station, bringing together automobile manufacturers, communications companies, technology companies, researchers and public agencies with the aim of accelerating the next generation of transportation technologies.