Wanna Drive for a Car-Sharing Service? GM Will Give You a Lyft

CARS.COM — If you want to drive for a ride-sharing service but don’t have a ride, GM’s new partnership with Lyft may be a pick-me-up. A new joint program between the automaker and the Uber competitor will enable aspiring Lyft drivers to rent vehicles from an in-house fleet.

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Express Drive will launch this month in Chicago, with plans to expand to Boston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore and beyond. The program starts at $99 a week, which includes insurance and maintenance. Once a driver accrues 65 rides a week, they can use the vehicle at no weekly fee. The companies also say there are special terms for drivers to rent cars on a weekly basis for up to eight weeks at a time.

Chicago’s Express Drive fleet will comprise Chevrolet Equinox SUVs equipped with GM’s OnStar connectivity and communications system. The program aims to help people without eligible vehicles become Lyft drivers, according to GM, which invested a half-billion dollars in the car-sharing service earlier this year and announced a partnership that includes plans to develop an on-demand network of autonomous vehicles.

“In Chicago alone, there were 60,000 people who applied to drive on the Lyft platform, but did not have a car that qualified,” the automaker said in a statement. “Express Drive directly addresses this need for millions of Americans who do not have access to a qualifying vehicle.”