With the caveat that I don't work for Lyft DevOps or anything (I only used to be a driver way back when)... If you need to make a critical update to the driver side your code is solidly firewalled from having to pass integration tests with the passenger side, and there's a possibility that some problems bleed through between the two different parts of the app. In the early days, there were a few updates where such things leaked through (if I remember correctly, there was one version update where the passengers accidentally could see the primetime map).
Quite frankly, I'm suprised they hadn't done it sooner.
Quite frankly, I'm suprised they hadn't done it sooner.