Lyft said on Thursday it expects to “significantly grow” the Waymo robotaxi fleet it services in Nashville by the year’s end, adding Waymo’s latest Ojai vehicles, and that airport rides are “coming soon on the Lyft app,” according to its third-quarter prepared remarks.
The Nashville update came with Lyft’s quarterly results and an interview CFO Michael Brous gave to Reuters, in which he described how Lyft gets paid for the cars.
“We get paid when those vehicles are out of the depot, so per available car,” Brous said. The Finance Chief declined to give the size of the Nashville fleet or its utilization.
Lyft earns money in Nashville from Waymo rides booked through its app and from a fee for each available vehicle that it maintains, charges and cleans, Brous told Reuters.
The work is done by Flexdrive, Lyft’s fleet-management subsidiary. Flexdrive has serviced the fleet since June, covering Waymo rides “booked through both the Waymo and Lyft apps,” Lyft said in its prepared remarks.
“Waymo builds the driver. Flexdrive keeps the fleet on the road. Together, we connect to riders,” the company wrote.
Lyft said it tracks “the number of vehicles, vehicle availability, and utilization rates” internally. “Results so far have been strong, and we’re ready for expansion,” it added.
On the earnings call, CEO David Risher said the partnership has a fleet-management side and a marketplace side.
“A car sitting around, not ready to go or a car not getting demand is not making any money,” Risher said, according to a call transcript. He said Lyft is increasing the Nashville fleet “fairly significantly” between now and the end of the year.
Airport Rides: Waymo First, Lyft Next
Waymo already serves Nashville International Airport through its own app. “Starting today, we’re serving rides to and from @Fly_Nashville,” Waymo posted on X on October 13.
“We’ll roll out access over time—Nashville riders, keep an eye on your app; we’ll let you know when you’re in,” the company added.
Pickups and drop-offs are in Terminal Garage 2, and access began with a limited group of riders, Fox 17 reported. Riders are notified in the Waymo app when the service opens to them.
Lyft’s remarks say airport rides are “coming soon on the Lyft app.” Neither company gave a date.
“We’re finally going to be able to get to the airport as well pretty soon there,” Brous said on the call.
Where Lyft Riders Can Get a Waymo
Lyft riders in Nashville have been matched with Waymo vehicles since September 9, when Nashville became the first market where Waymo cars are available on both the Waymo and Lyft apps, the companies said.
Riders requesting Standard, Priority Pickup, Wait & Save or Extra Comfort can be matched with a Waymo at no additional cost. The route must start and end inside a zone covering Downtown/Broadway, North Nashville/Germantown, East Nashville, Midtown and South Nashville.
“Riders can always decline an autonomous ride or opt out of them entirely,” Lyft said. Lyft and Waymo dispatch vehicles “from a single fleet dynamically across both networks,” according to the announcement.
Waymo has said it operates more than 100 vehicles across a 60-square-mile area in Nashville, Bloomberg reported in early September.
At its April launch, a Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch the company had “dozens of vehicles” in the city.
Geofenced Area
Waymo opened Nashville to invited riders in April with an initial area of 60 square miles, TechCrunch reported. It dropped the invite requirement in late June.
When Waymo launched teen accounts in Nashville on September 22, its blog post said riders ages 13 to 17 could ride “across 50 square miles of Nashville.”
On October 27, Waymo said it would add nearly 250 square miles across five cities over the following week, adding that “people in Nashville can travel further south, like to the zoo.”
The Nashville expansion added 18.5 square miles and brought the total to 80 square miles, including Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, the Mall at Green Hills and Lipscomb University, Fox 17 reported, citing Waymo.
Those figures put the pre-expansion area at 61.5 square miles, in line with the 60 square miles cited in April and September rather than the 50 in the teen-account post.
Lyft’s Waymo matching zone is described by neighborhood, not by area, and Lyft did not say whether it now covers the late-October additions.
A Depot Built for Hundreds
Lyft said in its second-quarter release that its fleet operations for Waymo in Nashville “officially began in June.”
Flexdrive cut the ribbon on its 80,000-square-foot depot on October 2 and said Waymo vehicles would move in ten days later.
Lyft said in Thursday’s remarks that more than 85 full-time employees will work behind the depot by 2027, many of them former Lyft drivers.
Q3 Context
Lyft’s adjusted EBITDA rose 47% year over year to $203.9 million in the third quarter, according to its results release. That beat the $194 million analysts expected, Reuters reported, citing LSEG data.
Gross bookings rose 17% to $5.6 billion. Lyft posted a net loss of $9.7 million, which included a $117.9 million impact from legal, tax and regulatory reserve changes and settlements.
The company guided to fourth-quarter adjusted EBITDA of about $188 million to $213 million.
Brous told Reuters robotaxis would take “a long time” to scale meaningfully, citing hardware, regulation, operational challenges and a broader backlash against AI over data centers and job losses.
“Early indications are we’re doing a good job, as evidenced by expanding the service area, growing the fleet, opening up airport rides, and then we’ll take it from there,” he said.
15 Cities, One on Lyft
Waymo’s rides page lists 15 US cities where it serves riders. Thirteen are on the Waymo app, while Atlanta and Austin are marked “Ride on Uber.”
Nashville is the only one of those cities where Waymo cars are also matched on Lyft.
Waymo ended its Uber arrangement in Phoenix in May, and Uber said hundreds of Waymo vehicles were available exclusively on its app in Austin and Atlanta, TechCrunch reported on June 29.
Waymo co-Chief Executive Officer Tekedra Mawakana told Bloomberg on Wednesday that the company would end its exclusivity with Uber in those two cities from January 2028. Uber had disclosed the January 2028 plan in July, as EV reported.
From Phoenix to Nashville
Lyft ran a 10-vehicle deployment with Waymo in Phoenix in 2019, Fortune reported.
Lyft also offered robotaxi rides, always with a human safety driver, with Motional in Las Vegas and Argo AI in Austin and Miami, TechCrunch reported. Argo AI shut down in 2022, and Motional paused the partnership.
Lyft and May Mobility launched robotaxis with a human safety operator in Atlanta in September 2025, TechCrunch reported.
Lyft and Waymo announced the Nashville partnership on September 17, 2025. “It’s two great tastes that go great together,” Risher said in the release.
Waymo opened Nashville in April 2026, Flexdrive took over fleet operations in June, Lyft app matching began on September 9 and the depot opened on October 2. Waymo went live on Lyft’s app in September with Jaguar I-Pace vehicles, and the Ojai Lyft now plans to add is built on a Zeekr base vehicle with Waymo’s sensors installed in Mesa, Arizona.
