When management upheaval, allegations of corporate espionage, and revelations of sexual harassment sent Uber into a public relations sinkhole, its long overshadowed rival Lyft shifted into overdrive. Drive.ai is a tech start-up that creates self-driving car sensors and software that can be retrofitted onto existing vehicles. SAN FRANCISCO -- Ride-hailing start-up Lyft may soon be picking up passengers in self-driving cars owned and powered by tech start-up Drive.ai, the two companies announced Thursday. When the program starts around Drive.ai's Mountain View headquarters, around 10 cars outfitted with the company's sensors and software will become a part of Lyft's free self-driving service, although passengers who are assigned an autonomous Lyft can opt out. "The purpose here is to see how passengers interact with autonomous vehicles, as well as to see how cities need to change to integrate them," Drive.ai

Google is one step closer to making self-driving cars a reality. Google-run Waymo unveiled its new self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans at the North American Auto Show Sunday. SAN FRANCISCO -- Eight years and nearly three million miles after Google began to build self-driving car technology, it's ready for passengers. Waymo, the search giant's renamed autonomous car company, will begin taking applications Tuesday from Phoenix-area residents who want to be among the hundreds of riders testing out an expanded fleet of Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid minivans outfitted with Waymo's myriad autonomous car sensors. A range of automotive and technology companies have said they aim to produce self-driving cars for ride-hailing programs by around 2020.

Google-run Waymo unveiled its new self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans at the North American Auto Show Sunday. SAN FRANCISCO -- Eight years and two million miles after Google began to build self-driving car technology, it's ready for passengers. Waymo, the search giant's renamed autonomous car company, will begin taking applications Tuesday from Phoenix-area residents who want to be among the hundreds of riders testing out an expanded fleet of Chrysler Pacifica Plug-In Hybrid minivans outfitted with Waymo's myriad autonomous car sensors. Select Phoenix residents have been testing Waymo's self-driving car service for the past few months, in anticipation of Waymo's announcement that it will make 600 Pacificas available to a few hundred testers in the Phoenix area. A range of automotive and technology companies have said they aim to produce self-driving cars for ride-hailing programs by around 2020.

Thousands have flooded into Austin, Texas to experience the 31st Annual South by Southwest Convention and Festivals. Check out some of the sights and sounds from the first day. Transportation options in Austin, Texas, include fleets of rental bikes position around town. AUSTIN -- The cruise to autonomous transportation is alive, but first we've got to get past some roadblocks. That's the takeaway from SXSW Interactive, the tech portion of the Texas confab that wrapped Tuesday and once again drew engineers, executives and lawmakers focused on steering society through a mobility revolution.

Thousands have flooded into Austin, Texas to experience the 31st Annual South by Southwest Convention and Festivals. Check out some of the sights and sounds from the first day. Osaka University roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro returned SXSW, this time bringing two robots, shown at left. Don't be too concerned about the rise of humanoid robots, because they're still not ready for prime time. But you might want to keep a wary eye on the machine-learning systems that power them.

Thousands have flooded into Austin, Texas to experience the 31st Annual South by Southwest Convention and Festivals. Check out some of the sights and sounds from the first day. The NIO EP9, which recently set a track record for autonomous cars at Austin's F1 racetrack, lured crowds at SXSW 2017. AUSTIN -- Autonomous cars don't come more cozy or crazy than the NIO Eve and EP9, two candy-colored vehicles that want you to believe the automotive future is almost here. The cars drew steady crowds this weekend here at SXSW Interactive, which once again invited technologists from major automakers and brash startups alike to lay out their roadmaps for the future of mobility.

On the eve of the Apple WWDC conference, some of the leading names in tech say bots may soon replace the apps we know and love. Ari Roisman, CEO and cofounder of Glide, a video-messaging app that hopes to capitalize on the coming transition away from texting and towards a voice-and-video interaction future. SAN FRANCISCO - Typing is so ... 20th century. And soon texting is likely to join it in that same communication dustbin. That's a view Ari Roisman, CEO and cofounder of video messaging app Glide, shares with some of the titans of tech ranging from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Airbnb is under fire for taking nearly one year to ban a host who turned away a transgender woman amid growing scrutiny of discrimination on the service. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky opens the company's Open Air tech conference by addressing the recent racist incidents that have plagued the site. SAN FRANCISCO -- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky opened the company's Open Air technical conference Wednesday by addressing recent racist incidents that have taken place on the $25-billion company's home sharing site. Beyond expressing outrage at the incidents that have impacted African-Americans and transgender guests, Chesky said the company plans to pursue technological innovations to guard against future discriminatory events. Chesky did not get specific about what those tech solutions could be, but his presence at the event -- which was not listed in the program -- speaks to both the urgency and seriousness of the issue for the company.

In Palo Alto on Oct. 14, 2015, USA TODAY's Marco della Cava tested out the new autopilot feature of Tesla's Model S. The updated software enables the car to change lanes by itself. A German robotics professor with the University of Nevada-Reno just completed a 1,500-mile autonomous car drive across Mexico. SAN FRANCISCO -- A University of Nevada-Reno researcher said he recently completed a 1,500-mile road trip across Mexico behind the wheel of his autonomous car, an impressive milestone in the pursuit of fully automated vehicles that can find their way in a variety of conditions. Raul Rojas, a robotics expert with the university, drove from the U.S. border at Nogales to Mexico City, using an onboard computer processing data from seven laser scanners, nine video cameras, seven radars and a precision GPS unit. The drive was done in Rojas' modified 2010 Volkswagen Passat Variant, dubbed Autonomos, whose steering, speed and braking systems are controllable by the computer.

USA TODAY takes a look at three cars at this year's L.A. Auto Show that cost more than $100,000. Waymo, the newly renamed Google self-driving car company, showed off its two seat prototype and new logo in the lobby of a San Francisco building Tuesday. SAN FRANCISCO -- By renaming itself Waymo, Google's self-driving car project officially changes lanes from research project to business enterprise that, at some point soon, will have to turn a profit. "We'll continue to have access of infrastructure and resources Alphabet provides, but we also have this feeling of being a venture-backed startup," said John Krafcik, formerly CEO of Google Cars and now leader of Waymo, said at an event here Tuesday. Krafcik said "we are all in on fully driverless solutions, that's what we're all about."