Lyft opens its ride-hailing app to teens

Lyft launched teen accounts on Monday, a product that allows minors as young as 13 to hail a ride without an adult in 200 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and New York.

The official launch comes two weeks after Lyft CEO David Risher announced on X plans to open the ride-hailing service to teenagers.

Like its rival Uber, which also offers teen accounts, the new Lyft service comes with a number of guardrails. Only a parent or guardian can create a teen account, according to Lyft. Drivers who are matched with these underage passengers must meet additional criteria and pass yearly background checks. Teens can also bring guests along for the ride, as long as the parent has given permission, according to Lyft.

Lyft has also baked in features like PIN verification, audio recording, and real-time tracking to allow parents to see where their teen is during their ride. Parents who want to sign up their teen can go to the app, select their profile at the bottom right of the screen, then tap ‘Lyft Teen.’ From here, parents can enter the teen’s contact info and add a shared payment method to cover teen rides. Once confirmed, the teen will receive a text message with a unique sign-up link.

Lyft is playing catch-up with Uber and even Waymo, which offers teen accounts in its robotaxi service area in Phoenix. Uber tested teen accounts as early as 2017, but didn’t roll out a commercial product until spring 2024 in more than a dozen cities in the U.S. and Canada. Uber has since added numerous other U.S. markets, as well as dozens of other countries. Last year, Uber started testing out teen accounts in several cities in India, as well.

Lyft’s new teen account is one of numerous new products and expansions that Risher has introduced at the company since he took the CEO spot. Lyft has made a handful of autonomous vehicle partnerships, including with May Mobility, Austrian manufacturer Benteler and Holon, Tensor Auto, and autonomy provider Mobileye.

The company has also pushed into Europe with its $197 million acquisition of German multi-mobility app Freenow from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility. The acquisition opened up the European market to Lyft for the first time.