Starbucks choose Lyft over Uber to give coffee perks to passengers

Passengers of ride-sharing service Lyft can now earn points toward a free cup of joe or a fancy frappuccino every time they take a ride.

Starbucks and Lyft announced a new partnership today that lets riders earn Starbucks "stars" on its loyalty app and even tip drivers with them. Lyft drivers also get automatically upgraded to "gold status" at Starbucks, a perk normally reserved for those who buy more than 30 drinks in a year.

Starbucks baristas, in turn, get a benefit of their own. Lyft said it would be testing a new program to give baristas free rides to and from work "when they need them most".

Notably absent from the partnership is Lyft's rival, Uber.

"We have respect for Uber, but in this case we believe that Lyft is the company for us," Howard Schultz, chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, told the New York Times. ?"We want to make these decisions based on the long term?,? and based on b?usiness? practices?."