Lyft Inc. reported a higher loss in its first post-initial public offering financial report while at the same time announcing that it will soon became the first external company to offer access to Waymo LLC self-driving vehicles.

For the first quarter of this year, Lyft reported a net loss of $1.138 billion, way up from a $234.3 million loss a year ago and a bigger loss than the $911.3 million Lyft reported for the entirety of 2018 in its IPO prospectus.

Lyft’s adjusted loss not counting certain costs such as stock compensation saw a small improvement, coming in a $211.5 million in the quarter versus $228.4 million a year ago.

Revenue was the bright spot for the ride-hailing firm, coming in at $776 million, nearly double the $397.2 million in the first quarter of 2018. The increase in revenue came off the back of increased riders and bookings, with active riders growing 46% year-on-year, to 20.5 million, while revenue per active rider came in at $37.86, up from $28.27 a year ago.

Looking forward, Lyft is predicting total revenue of $800 million and $810 million in the second quarter with an adjusted loss of $270 million to $280 million. For the financial year 2019, the company is predicting revenue between $3.275 billion and $3.3 billion and an adjusted loss between $1.15 billion and $1.175 billion.

“The first quarter was a strong start to an important year, our first as a public company,” Logan Green, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lyft, said in a statement.  “Our performance was driven by the increased demand for our network and multi-modal platform. Transportation is one of the largest segments of our economy and we are still in the very early stages of an enormous secular shift from personal car ownership to Transportation-as-a-Service.”

Announced on the same day as Lyft’s financials was soon-to-be-added support for Lyft users to hail Waymo vehicles in Metro Phoenix area. In the culmination of a partnership announced in 2017, 10 Waymo self-driving vehicles will be available in the Lyft app “over the next few months” giving Lyft users the ability to book a self-driving vehicle instead of a car with a driver.

“This first step in our partnership will allow us to introduce the Waymo Driver to Lyft users, enabling them to take what for many will be their first ride in a self-driving vehicle,” Waymo CEO John Krafcik said on Medium.

Waymo, previously Google’s self-driving car project, started testing self-driving vehicles on Phoenix streets in November 2017 before rolling out a commercial driverless taxi service in December. The service hasn’t always been popular with all in the city, however, with a report Dec. 13 saying that some Phoenix residents had taken to attacking the cars.

Both the Lyft Waymo teamup and Lyft’s financials were mostly expected, though the earnings came in a little under expectations.

Shares in Lyft closed the day at $59.34, down 2% on a down day for the overall market, before dropping almost 3% in after-hours trading.

Photo: skellysf/Flickr