Lyft cars, and their distinctive pink moustaches, are headed to the Big Apple.
The San Francisco-based ride-sharing service on Tuesday announced plans to launch in New York City on Friday at 7 p.m. local time, starting in the outer boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Even better — the company is offering free rides to all new passengers in NYC for two weeks.
"Brooklyn and Queens are vastly underserved by public transit options compared to the rest of New York City," Lyft wrote in a blog post. "In fact, just one of New York's 23 subway lines passes solely between boroughs, and 95 percent of taxi pickups happen in Manhattan or a local airport."
Not everyone is pleased with the move, especially since Lyft is launching without the official go-ahead from the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission. Lyft drivers are not licensed by the TLC, so they'll risk having their cars seized and getting hit with fines for operating as illegal cabbies.
The NYC launch comes after Lyft in April expanded to 24 new markets throughout the U.S. and lowered its prices. The expansion brought the startup's total number of markets to 60, beating out rival Uber.
"New York's founding drivers stand behind the idea that together, we can make our big cities feel smaller and spark a movement that changes the way we view transportation," Lyft wrote on its blog. "Artists, parents, non-profit workers and even a local New York firefighter make up the community of drivers who will pioneer ridesharing in New York City, and they can't wait to help drive this progress forward."
Meanwhile, Uber this week knocked 20 percent off the price of its budget uberX offering in New York City. The company also agreed to ban surge pricing in the event of an emergency.