Being first to market with rideshare on CarPlay and Android Auto
Article Summary
Michael Ramdatt and the Lyft team reveal how they beat every competitor to launch the first rideshare app on CarPlay and Android Auto. The secret? Building their own mapping platform from scratch.
For years, Lyft drivers begged for native CarPlay and Android Auto support, resorting to DIY workarounds and constantly switching between apps. After building Lyft Maps in-house to replace third-party navigation, Lyft partnered directly with Apple and Google to design rideshare-specific templates and become the first to market with in-car rideshare integration.
Key Takeaways
- Small team: just one engineer per platform to start the entire project
- Launched CarPlay in November 2022, Android Auto in January 2023
- Meaningful portion of drivers now use infotainment for rides
- Beta drivers tested thousands of rides before public launch
- Custom templates created with Apple and Google for rideshare needs
Lyft became the first rideshare company to launch native CarPlay and Android Auto by building their own mapping platform and working directly with Apple and Google to create rideshare-specific templates.
About This Article
Lyft's developers ran into a wall when they tried to test apps on actual CarPlay and Android Auto devices. Code that worked fine on their computers wouldn't run on the physical hardware because of provisioning restrictions.
Working with Apple and Google, the team built new internal test tracks and approval processes. This let them run special versions of the infotainment apps on real head units early in development.
The faster feedback loop made a real difference. Bugs that used to take weeks to fix now got resolved in days. The rough prototypes from May 2022 were ready for drivers by summer 2022.