Lyft Makes Self-Driving Research Public in Bid to Speed Development

Lyft Inc. is making research data on self-driving technology available to the public in a bid to accelerate the development of robotic cars, which is seen as critical to the ride-hailing giant’s future viability.

Billing it as the largest such trove of data made available to researchers and rivals, Lyft said Tuesday the initiative includes more than 55,000 three-dimensional frames gleaned from cameras, lidar and radar installed on its research fleet. It also includes data from highly detailed maps created by Lyft’s test vehicles, which have been gathering data for nearly two years.