Recently we reported about Ford collaborating with ride-hailing service Lyft to develop summonable self-driving cars to drive you where you need to go. GM has now announced that they intend to beat Ford to the competition, launching commercial autonomous cars by 2019.

GM President Dan Ammann made the announcement at an event in San Fransisco this week. Curiously enough, Ammann holds a board seat at Lyft. GM and Lyft agreed to work together last year towards establishing a network of driverless vehicles in America.

Aside from the phrase "dense, urban environments," GM did not announce where they will be launching these driverless cars, though autonomous Chevrolet Bolts can be seen in testing in San Fransisco, Scottsdale, and Warren, with plans to expand to New York City next year.

Cutting out the need to pay a driver, this is expected to be an extremely profitable service. It is estimated to cost 66% less to maintain a vehicle per mile by 2025 compared to now.

GM is expanding their self-driving car division, known as Cruise Automation. Research and development towards the project have been doubled, as well as the development space. Cruise animation is expecting to increase staff by 1,100.

How this will impact Lyft is uncertain. All we can say for sure is that Uber better have something in the works before they fall to the wayside.