Lyft now has permission to test self-driving cars on California's roads

Lyft just took a small but essential step forward in the development of its own self-driving car project.

The California DMV granted the rapidly growing ride-hailing company permission to test autonomous vehicles on the state's public roads. The registration, which the DMV gives after the submission of an application and an annual $150 fee, has become a rite of passage of sorts for the various AV projects from automakers, tech companies, and startups that are currently racing to develop their own platforms.

Registering with the state means that Lyft will now have to submit certain information to the DMV about its operations, most significantly an annual disengagement report detailing the number of times human operators had to take control of test vehicles. Lyft joins the likes of massive companies like Volkswagen, Waymo, Apple, and Ford with the registration, rounding out the full list of testers to 45.

The decision to register now is important for Lyft's greater designs for expansion and its plans to launch its own fleet of AVs. Until recently, the company was content to depend on partnerships to actually put its self-driving cars on the streets, as associates like Waymo, Drive.ai, GM, Udacity, and Ford already have permission to test on the state's public roads.

But Lyft announced that it would open its own Silicon Valley autonomous development center in July, which signaled that the company will eventually need to test its own autonomous cars on public roads. Lyft's reps had no comment when we reached out for more details about its autonomous program, or if public testing is imminent.

Unlike main rival Uber, which famously challenged the DMV's rules and was subsequently booted from operating its self-driving cars in the state (before conceding and applying for the permit), Lyft appears to have handled the paperwork ahead of time.

The registration is just the latest sign of Lyft's growth. The company also recently raised its largest round of funding in a $1 billion drive led by a Google fund and announced its long-awaited international expansion into Canada. A leaked investor document obtained by Bloomberg projected domestic growth of 61 percent by the year's end, which could bring Lyft's presence in the U.S. to over a third of the total ride-hailing market.

Lyft is still behind Uber when it comes to self-driving cars, though. The larger ride-hailing company has public pilots running in Arizona and Pittsburgh, and just signed a massive deal with Volvo that will provide its very own 24,000-vehicle self-driving fleet, an unprecedented move that could help to change the industry's dominant, contractor-reliant business model.