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Waymo, Alphabet's autonomous-car unit, will work with the ride-hailing firm Lyft on initiatives like pilot tests in a move to put more self-driving cars on the road, The New York Times reports.

Waymo will deploy its vehicles in the Lyft fleet, according to The Wall Street Journal, and the companies' engineers will collaborate on tech development moving forward. Neither firm provided a time frame on tests or vehicle deployment.

It looks like Waymo is going to stick to developing and deploying self driving technology, rather than getting involved in fleet management. Waymo has been hard at work developing the sensors, cameras, and computing systems that make a car self-driving. It can then partner, like it has with Chrysler, to get this technology into specially manufactured vehicles. But until now, it wasn't clear how Waymo planned to get these cars on the road for commercial use. This agreement suggests that Waymo plans to do that through partnerships with ride-hailing firms, rather than operating its own self-driving service. And given the company's ongoing lawsuit with Uber, Lyft makes for a logical partner, particularly because of the scale that it offers — the platform operates in 70 countries and about 500 cities around the world. That gives Waymo the scale it needs to deploy self-driving cars globally without needing to do the automotive legwork.

Waymo could therefore leverage Lyft to launch a commercial service sooner and cement its status as a leader in the space. The company is locked in a race with automakers and other tech companies to get autonomous vehicles on the road as fast as possible. The agreement will help the company on two fronts:

Technological progress. Self-driving cars aren't yet able to safely navigate public roads — while Waymo is ahead of Uber, humans still need to take control of its self-driving cars very often. By deploying vehicles with Lyft in a variety of locations around the world, Waymo can accelerate the development of its self-driving systems by exposing them to more diverse environments, where they can adapt to different road conditions and scenarios. This could mean the cars might be ready to be deployed as part of a commercial service sooner than those from competitors.

Consumer perception. Since autonomous vehicles can't yet safely navigate public roads without the need for human intervention, consumers are rightly still skeptical of their safety — 54% of US drivers feel safe sharing the road with self-driving cars and less than one-third of US consumers are willing to ride in a self-driving taxi. Consumer confidence in Lyft, plus added reach and visibility, could help consumers see the benefits of self-driving cars for themselves, perhaps leading them to trust self-driving cars from Waymo for more of their mobility needs.

The self-driving car is no longer a futuristic fantasy. Consumers can already buy vehicles that, within a few years time, will get software updates enabling them to hit the road without the need for a driver.

This autonomous revolution will upend the automotive sector and disrupt huge swaths of the economy, while radically improving energy efficiency and changing the way people approach transport around the world.

Automakers and tech companies are racing to develop the technology that will power self-driving cars in the coming years. That tech is advancing, but leaves observers with a bigger question: will consumers trust driverless car tech, and will they want to use autonomous cars?

Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on self-driving cars that analyzes the market, and forecasts vehicle shipments and market penetration. It also profiles the players expected to take on a prominent role in the autonomous future, examines the barriers to autonomous car development and adoption, and reviews developments in technology, regulation, and consumer sentiment. Finally, it analyzes the impact the introduction of autonomy will have on various industries and transport trends.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

Self-driving cars are coming; there will be fully autonomous cars on the roads in the US in 2018, and adoption will just take off from there.

The technology is developing swiftly to allow fully self-driving vehicles, while the regulatory environment is adapting to the anticipated changes that this new technology will bring.

We conducted a survey asking our exclusive BI Insiders panel about their thoughts on self-driving cars, the future of the automotive industry, and the impact autonomous vehicles will have on their purchasing habits moving forward. The results provide a picture of consumer sentiment at the precipice of the autonomous era.

In full, the report:

Sizes the current and future self-driving car market, forecasting shipments and projecting installed base.

Explains the current state of technology, regulation, and consumer perception.

Analyzes how the development of autonomous cars will impact employment and the economy.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it: