Lyft challenges Uber Black with its own luxury cars

Lyft passengers who prefer a black Audi or Lexus to the ubiquitous Toyota Camry can rest easy. On Thursday, Lyft launched their Lux service in New York City, San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles and Chicago, bringing premium black cars with drivers ranked 4.7 and above. Lyft says they want customers not only using this service for business travel, but attending weddings too -- Lux SUV is for parties of six or more. The service is one tier higher than Lyft Premier, which launched last year.

Lyft's new service competes with Uber Black, and follows a huge expansion that brought Lyft to over 50 new cities earlier this year. As Uber has a string of shady practices exposed -- the latest was a New York Times report that Uber owes tens of millions of dollars to drivers in miscalculated commissions -- Lyft may be capitalizing on an opportunity to steal customers. Yet while Lyft had a good 2016, it has a lot catching-up to do: Uber is still supposedly worth almost nine times its closest rival.