Major Announcement: Jeremy Bird, Lyft EVP of Driver Experience, will be our guest for Episode 180 of SMTMC live on our YouTube channel. Tune in for that in-depth interview coming up on October 28th at 3 PM PST (6 PM EST)!
According to Jeremy Bird (Lyft EVP of Driver Experience), drivers remain the heart of Lyft’s community. Drivers’ success, safety, and satisfaction are what drive every innovation Lyft creates. As Lyft closes out another year of growth and progress, it would like to celebrate your accomplishments and share the latest features designed to help drivers earn more, drive smarter, and stay safer on the road.
Celebrating a Record Year
In the first half of 2025, Lyft drivers completed more than 453.2 million rides across nearly 1,000 cities worldwide. That milestone reflects the incredible service, dedication, and professionalism drivers bring to riders every day.
Earlier this year, Lyft introduced several driver-focused tools and features that have quickly become part of your daily success.
Rider Favorites: Riders can now “favorite” drivers, giving those drivers first access to their scheduled ride requests. Within just two months, over 450,000 drivers were favored by more than one million riders, with several drivers receiving over 100 favorites each.
AI-Powered Tools: Over 220,000 drivers have generated personalized Driver Accomplishment Letters to showcase their experience, and 17,000 drivers have already used the Earnings Assistant to plan more efficient driving schedules.
Lyft Rewards Expansion: Over 330,000 drivers now belong to a Lyft Rewards tier, collectively earning more than 2.9 billion points since the summer. Many are redeeming those points for cash, gas, and daily expenses, putting real money back in their pockets.
Supporting Driver Success
To help you take your drive further, Lyft is launching a new wave of features focused on flexibility, control, and maximizing your time on the road.
Earn Sooner While Waiting: Starting soon, you’ll earn wait time pay after just one minute during pickups, with higher rates on turbo bonus rides. More than a third of rides will now qualify for wait-time earnings.
Stackable Bonuses: Lyft is upgrading its Turbo (planned incentives) and Flash Turbo (real-time) bonuses. Both are percentage-based, visible directly on the map, and can now stack, letting you multiply your earning potential.
Customizable Ride Challenges: Choose exactly how many rides you want to complete and align challenges with your personal goals and schedule.
Choose Your Ride Types: Soon, you’ll have the ability to select which ride types you want to drive, whether standard, Comfort, or XL, giving you the flexibility to tailor each session to your preferences.
These changes reflect Lyft’s ongoing mission to make driving with Lyft more rewarding, efficient, and flexible than ever before.
Prioritizing Driver Safety
Safety remains at the core of everything Lyft does, and it is excited to introduce the Lyft Safety Hub for Drivers, a centralized location where you can manage all your safety settings, block passengers, and learn about Lyft’s built-in protections, such as Rider Verification and real-time ride monitoring.
To further support your peace of mind, Lyft has also partnered with Rexing to offer drivers exclusive dashcam discounts of 40% or more, available for a limited time.
Celebrating Driver Service
Your professionalism deserves recognition. Beginning November 1, drivers will gain access to a new feature in the Earnings tab that displays a detailed breakdown of tip earnings along with personalized suggestions for increasing them over time.
In addition, the holiday season brings more ways to use your hard-earned Lyft Rewards points. For a limited time, drivers can redeem points for gift cards from partners like Advanced Auto Parts, AMC, Sephora, and more, perfect for end-of-year shopping or personal rewards.
Connecting With the Driver Community
Lyft is incredibly proud of the opportunities and connected with drivers in person this year. Earlier this month, Lyft hosted Elite Driver celebrations in Austin, Atlanta, and San Francisco events designed to recognize outstanding service, foster community, and provide a space for drivers to share experiences and learn from one another.
Lyft also held its first two Lyft Driver Autonomous Forums in Atlanta and San Francisco. These sessions allow drivers to speak directly with Lyft teams about the future of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and how AVs will coexist with human drivers on the platform.
As Lyft expands AV operations into new cities, it’s committed to transparency, ongoing communication, and ensuring that drivers have a real voice in shaping a hybrid future where technology and human service thrive side by side.
The next Driver Autonomous Forum will take place in Nashville in the coming weeks, and Lyft is looking forward to continuing this important dialogue.
My Take
Lyft’s latest announcement paints a rosy picture, but many drivers see a different reality. While new features like stackable bonuses and faster wait-time pay sound promising, they don’t address the deeper issue: overall driver pay has not kept up with inflation, rising vehicle costs, or the unpaid time spent waiting between rides.
The “customizable” challenges and “choose your ride type” options may offer flexibility on paper, but they also shift more responsibility onto drivers to chase bonuses rather than guaranteeing fair base rates. Meanwhile, Lyft continues to highlight billion-ride milestones and reward points, yet these metrics mask the erosion of true earnings per hour.
Safety initiatives and dashcam discounts are welcome, but they feel reactive, not proactive. What drivers really need is stronger protection from deactivations, transparent fare breakdowns, and a voice in how autonomous vehicles will reshape their livelihoods.
If Lyft truly values its driver community, it must go beyond features that look good in press releases and commit to sustainable pay, real transparency, and genuine partnership with the people who power its platform every day.
Please send me your comments at sergio@therideshareguy.com
Sergio@RSG
