Lyft sinks as Wedbush downgrades the stock and warns about robotaxi disruption risk

Shares of Lyft are down about 4% on Friday morning after the ride-hailing service was downgraded by Wedbush Securities to “underperform” from “neutral.” Lyft rival Uber also ticked down in early trading.

According to a note published Friday by Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt, the market is underestimating the negative impact that autonomous vehicles and robotaxi services will have on companies like Lyft and Uber. Devitt wrote that Lyft is more at risk of these downsides than Uber due to its “exposure to the US ridesharing market and undiversified offering mix.” Along with the downgrade, Wedbush lowered its price target for Lyft to $16 from $20.

While the complex robotaxi market is still in early phases, the coming year could be a big one — and that could be rough for the ride-hailing companies. Per Wedbush, Alphabet’s $100 billion robotaxi biz, Waymo, is set to launch operations in 20 cities, and Tesla appears to be making strides.

Devitt wrote: “As Waymo moves past its ‘training wheels’ phase of development, we expect more distribution via Waymo One and less via [third-party] integration. 2026 could prove to be a painful year for ridesharing, if true.”