Lyft opens ride-hailing app to teens

Lyft officially introduced teen accounts on Monday, enabling minors as young as 13 to request rides independently — without an accompanying adult — across 200 U.S. cities. The rollout includes major metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and New York City.

The nationwide launch follows comments made two weeks earlier by Lyft CEO David Risher on X, where he outlined plans to extend the company’s ride-hailing services to teenagers.

Similar to offerings from rival Uber, which also provides teen accounts, Lyft’s new feature includes a series of built-in safeguards. According to the company, only a parent or legal guardian can set up a teen account. Drivers who are paired with underage riders must meet enhanced eligibility standards and complete annual background screenings. Lyft also allows teens to bring guests during rides, provided parental consent has been obtained.

To strengthen oversight and safety, Lyft has implemented several safeguards within the service. These include PIN verification to confirm the correct ride, optional audio recording, and real-time trip tracking, allowing parents to monitor their teen’s location throughout the journey. Parents interested in enrolling their child can open the Lyft app, tap their profile icon in the lower right corner, and select “Lyft Teen.” From there, they can input the teen’s contact details and link a shared payment method to cover ride costs. After verification, the teen receives a text message containing a unique registration link to activate the account.

With this move, Lyft is working to narrow the gap with competitors. Uber began testing teen accounts as early as 2017, but did not launch a full commercial rollout until spring 2024 across more than a dozen cities in the United States and Canada. Since then, Uber has expanded the program to additional U.S. markets and dozens of countries internationally. The company also began piloting teen accounts in several cities in India last year. Meanwhile, Waymo offers teen accounts within its robotaxi service zone in Phoenix.

The teen account launch is part of a broader wave of initiatives introduced under Risher’s leadership. Since taking on the CEO role, he has overseen a series of new product developments and strategic expansions. Lyft has established multiple partnerships in the autonomous vehicle sector, including collaborations with May Mobility, Benteler, Holon, Tensor Auto, and autonomy technology provider Mobileye.

Beyond North America, Lyft has expanded its presence in Europe through its $197 million acquisition of the German multi-mobility platform Freenow from BMW and Mercedes-Benz Mobility. That transaction marked Lyft’s first formal entry into the European market.

The introduction of teen accounts represents another step in Lyft’s broader strategy to expand its user base while reinforcing safety and parental oversight features within its ride-hailing ecosystem.