Lyft's New Partner: Taco Bell

It's apparently a fairly common question posed to drivers who work for the likes of Lyft or Uber: Is it OK to swing by a fast-food drive-thru on the way home? Now Lyft is not only answering the question in the affirmative, it's encouraging the practice. The company has teamed up with Taco Bell on an experiment expected to go national next year, reports Mashable. It's called Taco Mode: Those who hail a Lyft driver can choose to get their ride routed to the nearest Taco Bell, with the transaction incorporated into the Lyft app. For now, it's available only in California's Orange County for a limited time: this Thursday through Saturday, and next Thursday through Saturday, between 9pm and 2am.

"I kind of think of this like inverse delivery, like we're delivering you to Taco Bell," a Taco Bell exec tells the New York Times. "You're being delivered to the food as opposed to having to get in your own car and drive." A post at TechCrunch sees the potential—if handled correctly. "But it's hard not to imagine a future in which these kinds of deals proliferate to the point where hailing a ride is basically just asking for an onslaught of advertising to be presented to you during idle time," writes Darrell Etherington. (More Lyft stories.)