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Comment by bredren | Hacker News Reader

I remember Lyft partnered with Ford on self-driving, but does that have anything to do with Lyft choosing to take this over? Bike shares seems outside the core-competency of Lyft. Is it simply for marketing?

I'm confused why the company would take this on as part of some larger strategic plan.

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"Go-bikes" were never run by Ford. It was a start-up called Motivate[0] that licensed the Ford brand for their bikeshare service. Lyft bought Motivate last year, and is just now getting around to the rebrand.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivate_(company)

Thanks for pointing that out -- I had no idea and it's really surprising to me. Why did they license the Ford brand? Is the Ford name really that attractive to the Bay Area bikesharing market? Would've expected it would hurt more than help, if anything. Is it just: all brand recognition is good brand recognition?

I think Ford paid to have it put there (as advertising). In NYC it is Citi Bike share as advertising for CitiBank.

Oops, that makes a lot more sense. Thank you.

its more that ford sponsored it. ford bought in around the same time they bought chariot i think. it seemed like they were just testing out a bunch of things related to transportation

Their mission: 'improve people’s lives with the world’s best transportation' allows for more than just cars and ride sharing. From what I've read recently, they also care greatly about being carbon neutral as well as embracing greener options for getting around. Bikes and eScooters seem to fit right into that plan.

Bikes and scooters will take many rides from ride sharing services. If Lyft wants to be a single source for all transit, they have to participate in micro-mobility.

Bike shares seem far closer to the core-competency of Lyft than Ford. Uber owns Jump, so this doesn't seem strange at all to me.

and Ford owns Spin.

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