The popular not-a-taxi company Lyft has been given permission by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to start testing autonomous cars. They now share this privilege with Apple, Subaru, Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and General Motors.

This license has been issued not long after the ride-sharing company announced a partnership with companies like Ford. The purpose of these partnerships being to test autonomous vehicles, with the final goal being the official implementation of them into their ride-hailing business. This process will also assist ford in developing and refining their autonomous technology.

Don't expect to see an immediate change, however. Both companies plan to very slowly integrate these vehicles into their normal fleet of cars, allowing for a smooth and gradual transition.

Lyft also announced earlier in the year of a partnership with both Waymo and nuTonomy. Partnership with Waymo, Google's self-driving car project, is in an effort to gain an edge over their main competitor, Uber, while nuTonomy, an MIT spin-off technology startup company with a focus on software, is to help improve the passenger experience and safety in these vehicles.

No formal date has been given, but it will still be a few years until you see these driverless cars as commonplace occurrences. Even now, you won't see an unmanned Lyft car anywhere but California.