Waymo and Lyft are forging a new partnership to work on self-driving cars, representatives for both companies confirmed Sunday night.

The New York Times was the first to report the news.

The companies declined to describe the nature of the partnership. But Waymo, which spun out of Google's self-driving-car division, has nearly a decade of experience of working in the space.

The collaboration is also a shot at Uber, which is working on its own self-driving car technology and is already Lyft's key rival in the ride-hailing space.

Things are also icy between Waymo and Uber. Waymo is suing Uber, accusing an executive who used to be in charge of Uber's autonomous-car program of stealing proprietary technology from Waymo and using it to develop parts of Uber's self-driving systems. Uber has denied those accusations. The Waymo-Lyft partnership is a signal the two companies are willing to team up to take on a mutual rival.

Lyft isn't developing in-house self-driving cars, but it has previously expressed willingness to partner with companies that are. Lyft could help Waymo connect to a large user base of customers already using the ride-hailing service so Waymo doesn't have to build its own network from scratch.

"We're looking forward to working with Lyft to explore new self-driving products that will make our roads safer and transportation more accessible," a Waymo representative told Business Insider in an email statement. "Lyft's vision and commitment to improving the way cities move will help Waymo's self-driving technology reach more people, in more places."