Such as Ford has confirmed in the presentation of its results for the last quarter, autonomous vehicle development company Argo AI is closing Their doors. Ford, which is one of its main investors, has also stressed that when the company closes it plans to hire its engineers to accelerate and expand the development of level 2+ and 3 autonomous driving systems.
From Ford they point out that they made the decision to redistribute their investment in autonomous driving and spend capital from the level 4 systems in which Argo AI worked, in which the vehicles are responsible for managing the majority of driving operations, to the Level 2+ and 3 systems. The first ones are in charge of the development of advanced driver assistance, while the level 3 ones are in charge of conditional automation. In both cases, Ford develops them at its facilities.
Furthermore, according to Techcrunch, Argo AI had not been able to attract new investors and that it had a “non-cash pre-tax dysfunction on its $2.7 billion investment«, which has led to a net loss of 827 million dollars in its third quarter of the year.
Volkswagen is another of the main shareholders of Argo AIAnd like Ford, it is likely to hire some of its staff, which currently numbers more than 2,000 employees. Between the two car manufacturers, which so far they have invested about 3.7 billion dollars in Argo AI, their technology and other assets will be shared. All company workers will receive various bonuses as part of their exit package, and those who do not hire Ford or Volkswagen will also have additional financial compensation and health insurance.
The two founders of Argo AI, its CEO Bryan Salesky and its President Peter Rander, wanted to thank the work of their team, «for your dedication«, in addition to highlighting that they are proud of what they have achieved. «The team has consistently exceeded their goals, and we hope they will be successful in what they do from now on, including the opportunities offered by Ford and Volkswagen to continue their work on automated driving technology.«.
In 2017, Ford said it would invest $1 billion in Argo AI over the next 5 years. Two years later, Volkswagen committed to injecting $2.6 billion in capital and assets into the startup. At the time, both Ford and Volkswagen said they would work on vehicles that take advantage of Argo AI’s self-driving technology. Between the two, in fact, they took most of its shares.
To date, Argo AI has been testing its technology on the roads of the United States and Germany. Last May, it began its driverless driving operations in Austin and Miami without having a safety driver behind the wheel. And as recently as last month, Argo AI announced various tools and services designed to support autonomous driving and robotic taxi operations.
But creating a robust and safe autonomous driving system is not exactly easy. Full autonomy, level 5, will not arrive for several years yet, and it will be necessary to see when it becomes something really viable for mass adoption. For this reason, as Ford has stated in its results report, «large-scale, profitable commercialization of advanced level 4 drive systems in the automotive industry will be further ahead than originally expected«.
