Ford Motor Co. has announced its latest investment of $1 billion to Pittsburgh startup called Argo AI, advancing its self-driving car efforts.
The investment aims to develop an autonomous vehicle by 2021. The key responsibility of Argo AI is the development of a virtual driver system for Ford’s self-driving cars. Most likely, the virtual driver system would only be used by ride-hailing services as a kind of robo-taxi and just limited to urban environments.
The latest deal will make Ford the majority stakeholder in the Argo AI, but it will remain independent from the automaker. Currently, Argo AI’s key initial focus is Ford’s autonomous vehicle project. In the future, the startup could also license its self-driving technologies to other companies.
Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky said that the investment would allow the start-up to employ roboticists and engineers from inside and out of Ford. The AI start-up is planning to hire 200 people by the end of 2017. The employees can work at engineering hubs in Pittsburgh, the Detroit area, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
The combined team of Ford and Argo AI will be using machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that improves with experience, to produce SAE level 4 self-driving cars that can be used in very large geo-fenced urban areas.
“As Ford expands to be an auto and a mobility company, we believe that investing in Argo AI will create significant value for our shareholders by strengthening Ford’s leadership in bringing self-driving vehicles to market in the near term and by creating technology that could be licensed to others in the future,” said Mark Fields, Ford’s president and CEO.
The American automaker will lead the process of developing vehicle platforms, systems integration, exterior and interior designs, manufacturing, and managing regulatory policies related to autonomous cars. The employees involved in the project will “significant equity participation” in Argo AI.
The Ford and Argo AI deal suggests one more sign that the continuous effort and development toward autonomous vehicles is shifting into a higher gear.