Hot on the heels of Uber Technologies Inc. hiring its first chief operating officer, rival Lyft Inc. today announced the appointment of a top Tesla Inc. executive to the same position.

Jon McNeill is coming aboard after a more than two-year stint as the president of global sales and service at Elon Musk’s carmaker. He oversaw the 10,000-person division responsible for all customer-facing operations at the company. It’s also notable that McNeill led the division during a period of rapid growth for Tesla that the company double its sales.

Lyft is experiencing similar momentum. The startup wrapped up 2017 with its share of the U.S. ride-hailing market up 50 percent thanks to a 230 percent increase in the number of rides served. This growth occurred under Lyft’s original COO, Amazon.com Inc. veteran Rex Tibbens, who stepped down late last year.  

McNeill is stepping into Tibbens’ shoes with plenty of prior experience working in fast-moving startup environments. Prior to Tesla, he established no fewer than three companies, including an analytics provider called TrueMotion Inc. (formerly Censio) that works with major auto insurers.

McNeill will most likely play a key part in Lyft’s self-driving car push. The ride-hailing startup is separately collaborating with Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo division and auto parts giant Aptiv PLC to build autonomous taxis, an initiative that seems to be advancing at a brisk pace. Lyft has an active role in developing the underlying artificial intelligence technology, having opened a new autonomous driving center just last month.

The company can expect many challenges in its quest to win the self-driving car race. Alphabet, which is not only a key partner but also one of Lyft’s biggest investors, recently ordered thousands of Chrysler minivans for what is shaping up to be a rival autonomous shuttle taxis. And Uber is building an even bigger fleet for the same purpose. 

Image: Lyft