GM is investing $500 million in Lyft to help the Uber competitor create self-driving cars

Lyft and General Motors are partnering to try and create self-driving cars. As part of that effort, General Motors is investing $500 million in the Uber competitor, Lyft announced Monday morning.

Lyft's valuation is now up to $5.5 billion. The company just completed a big $1 billion round of financing.

This isn't the first big partner Lyft has aligned itself with. In September Lyft and Didi, a huge ride hailing service in China, announced they'd be teaming up. While that seems to be more of a partnership about spreading Lyft's services - which have only been available in the US - world wide, the GM partnership seems to be a long-term technology play. The companies hope to have driverless cars on the road within a decade. Meanwhile, Lyft and GM are creating car rental hubs where people can grab cars for very short periods of time, The Verge reports, which sounds a lot like Zip Car.

Uber and Google area also separately working on driverless car solutions.