Lyft is opening its ride-hailing app for teens

Lyft launched Teen Accounts on Monday, a product that allows minors as young as 13 to travel without an adult in 200 U.S. cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and New York.

The official launch comes two weeks after Lyft CEO David Risher announced X’s plans to open a ride-hailing service to teens.

Like rival Uber, which also offers accounts for teens, Lyft’s new service comes with a number of guardrails. Only a parent or guardian can create an account for teens, according to Lyft. Drivers matching these underage passengers must meet additional criteria and pass annual background checks. Teens can also take guests along for the ride, as long as a guardian has given permission, according to Lyft.

Lyft has also made features like PIN verification, voice recording, and real-time tracking to let parents know where their teen is during their ride. Parents who want to sign up their teens can go to the app, select their profile at the bottom right of the screen, then click “Lyft Teen.” From here, parents can enter their teen’s contact information and add a co-payment method to cover their teen’s trips. Once confirmed, your teen will receive a text message containing a unique registration link.

Lyft is trying to catch up with Uber and even Waymo, which offers accounts for teens in its robotaxi service area in Phoenix. Uber tested teen accounts as early as 2017, but didn’t roll out a commercial product until spring 2024 in more than a dozen cities in the U.S. and Canada. Since then, Uber has added several other US markets, as well as dozens of other countries. Last year, Uber began testing teen accounts in several cities in India as well.

Lyft’s new teen account is one of many new products and expansions Risher has introduced at the company since taking over as CEO. Lyft has a number of partnerships in the self-driving car space, including with May Mobility, Austrian manufacturer Benteler, Holon, Tensor Auto, and self-driving provider Mobileye.

The company also headed into Europe with its $197 million acquisition of German multi-mobility app Freenow from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility. The acquisition opened the European market to Lyft for the first time.