Lyft opens its ride-hailing app to teens

Lyft launched teen accounts connected Monday, a merchandise that allows minors arsenic young arsenic 13 to hail a thrust without an big successful 200 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and New York.

The authoritative motorboat comes 2 weeks aft Lyft CEO David Risher announced connected X plans to unfastened the ride-hailing work to teenagers.

Like its rival Uber, which besides offers teen accounts, the caller Lyft work comes with a fig of guardrails. Only a genitor oregon guardian tin make a teen account, according to Lyft. Drivers who are matched with these underage passengers indispensable conscionable further criteria and walk yearly inheritance checks. Teens tin besides bring guests on for the ride, arsenic agelong arsenic the genitor has fixed permission, according to Lyft.

Lyft has besides baked successful features similar PIN verification, audio recording, and real-time tracking to let parents to spot wherever their teen is during their ride. Parents who privation to motion up their teen tin spell to the app, prime their illustration astatine the bottommost close of the screen, past pat ‘Lyft Teen.’ From here, parents tin participate the teen’s interaction info and adhd a shared outgo method to screen teen rides. Once confirmed, the teen volition person a substance connection with a unsocial sign-up link.

Lyft is playing catch-up with Uber and even Waymo, which offers teen accounts successful its robotaxi work country successful Phoenix. Uber tested teen accounts arsenic aboriginal arsenic 2017, but didn’t rotation retired a commercialized merchandise until outpouring 2024 successful much than a twelve cities successful the U.S. and Canada. Uber has since added galore different U.S. markets, arsenic good arsenic dozens of different countries. Last year, Uber started investigating retired teen accounts successful several cities successful India, arsenic well.

Lyft’s caller teen relationship is 1 of galore caller products and expansions that Risher has introduced astatine the institution since helium took the CEO spot. Lyft has made a fistful of autonomous conveyance partnerships, including with May Mobility, Austrian shaper Benteler and Holon, Tensor Auto, and autonomy supplier Mobileye.

The institution has besides pushed into Europe with its $197 cardinal acquisition of German multi-mobility app Freenow from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility. The acquisition opened up the European marketplace to Lyft for the archetypal time.