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Presumably they want to at least hold a portfolio of strategic patents.

Why? If you can buy driverless cars from, say, GM, what do the strategic patents get you? If GM, Toyota, Ford, et al all sell them, there's pressure to reduce prices anyway. Lyft's core competence is in hooking people up with drivers, not in building advanced new automation tech. The smart thing to do is double down on it since there's a market and presumably a path to profitability.

> Why? If you can buy driverless cars from, say, GM, what do the strategic patents get you?

Royalties, most likely. Discounts on cars in exchange for licenses. Maybe something to auction off during the bankruptcy process so that investors get a fraction of their money back.

Patents can be the most valuable thing a company has. Google pretty much wound up scooping the patents out of Motorola and selling the rest (you know, the thousands of smart people and hardware and history) for a discount.

Are you assuming these automakers won't compete with Uber directly? I think some automakers are looking to enter the "transportation services" market.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/ford-says-it-will-focus-more-on-...

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