Argo AI

Last updated
Argo AI LLC
Company type Joint venture
Industry Self-driving car
Founded2016;8 years ago (2016)
Founders
  • Bryan Salesky
  • Peter Rander
Defunct2022 (2022)
Headquarters
Key people
Owner
Number of employees
1,700 [1]
Website www.argo.ai   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Argo AI LLC was an autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. [2] [3] The company was co-founded in 2016 by Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, veterans of the Google and Uber automated driving programs. [4] Argo AI was an independent company that built software, hardware, maps, and cloud-support infrastructure to power self-driving vehicles. Argo was mostly backed by Ford Motor Co. (2017) [5] and the Volkswagen Group (2020). [6] At its peak, the company was valued at $7 billion. [7]

Contents

In October 2022 it was announced by Ford that the company would be disbanded and some employees would be split between VW and Ford. Argo’s technology will be salvaged and further developed in-house by Ford and VW. [8] [9] [10] Ford stated their intent to change the focus of development from Level 4 autonomous driving to Level 3 and Level 2+. [11] [12]

History

Founding

Argo AI was co-founded in November 2016 by roboticists Bryan Salesky, CEO of the company, and company president Peter Rander. As of July 2020, the company employed over 1000 employees with offices [13] in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Palo Alto, Cranbury, NJ [14] and Munich, Germany. [15] In June 2020, Argo was valued at $7.25 billion. [16]

Salesky was born in Woodhaven, MI outside of Detroit and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Argo is based. [4] He earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 2002 and began working at Union Switch & Signal, a supplier of railroad signaling equipment, where he worked on anti-collision software for trains. [4] From 2004 to 2011 he worked at the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy, where Rander was his boss. [4]

In 2007, Salesky and Chris Urmson [4] led Carnegie Mellon’s software development team for the third DARPA driverless car competition dubbed the Urban Challenge. [17] From 2013 - 2016, Salesky served as director of hardware development for Google’s autonomous vehicle initiative, now known as Waymo. [17] [4]

Rander, a Michigan native [18] and University of Detroit Mercy alumnus [19] earned his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and worked alongside Salesky at the National Robotics Engineering Center. [20]  From 2015 to 2016, [21] Rander was the engineering lead for Uber’s Advanced Technology Group (ATG); Uber’s self-driving car unit. [22]

Argo AI was initially funded in late 2016 through a small seed round from an undisclosed source. [15] In February 2017, Ford Motor Company announced that it was to invest $1 billion in Argo AI over the next five years, to develop a virtual driver system for the automaker's autonomous vehicle coming in 2021. [5] Ford became the company’s largest shareholder, enabling them to hire 200 additional employees including members of Ford's R&D team. [23]

Volkswagen investments and disbandment

In June 2020, Volkswagen invested $2.6 billion into Argo AI. Under the terms of the deal, Volkswagen committed $1 billion in cash to Argo AI and its Munich-based Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID) unit - valued at $1.6 billion. [24] The AID technology unit, consisting of over 200 employees, was first launched to develop autonomous vehicle technology for VW automobiles. According to the terms of the deal, VW was to purchase Argo AI shares from Ford for $500 million over three years, while Ford would invest the remaining $600 million of its $1 billion cash commitment to the company. In executing the agreement, the Munich-based AID team was integrated into Argo AI to form the company’s European engineering center. [24]

Between the partnerships, Argo raised over $3.6 billion. [15] Argo’s ownership was shared among its largest shareholders, Ford and Volkswagen, each of whom owned 42 percent of the company. [25] In 2017, its board of directors was composed of two Ford seats, two Volkswagen seats, and three Argo seats. [24]

In July 2021, Lyft invested in Argo with a plan to launch services on Lyft’s ride-hailing network in Austin and Miami. The partnership with Lyft boosted Argo’s valuation to $12.4 billion. [26]

In March 2022, Argo AI announced the opening of a new engineering and development office in Los Angeles. [27]

In October 2022, After failing to secure further investment from Amazon, [28] Ford announced that the company would be disbanded after posting an $827 million net-loss for the third quarter. Ford assumed a $2.7 billion accounting charge and wrote off a cash investment of about $500 million for Argo AI. [8] Similarly, Volkswagen expensed €1.9 billion [29]

A number of resources from Argo AI were transitioned to Ford's ADAS effort Latitude AI, and VW's ADAS efforts CARIAD. [30] VW also continued it autonomy efforts with its ID BUZZ platform with Mobileye, an alternative SDS supplier. [31]

Technology

A Ford Escape with Argo AI hardware Ford Escape with Argo AI equipment.jpg
A Ford Escape with Argo AI hardware

Argo claimed its technology would deliver Level 4-capable Self-Driving Systems (SDS) for autonomous driving (AV) vehicles. [32] Autonomous driving categories are defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers and have been adopted as industry standards by the U.S. Department of Transportation. [33]

The technology developed by Argo comprises the entire self-driving system, including the software and hardware computing platforms, sensors, cameras, radar, and light detection and ranging radar (LIDAR). [15] In October 2017, Argo purchased Princeton Lightwave, a producer of lidar technology, based in Cranbury, New Jersey. [34] In 2019, Argo introduced its third-generation test vehicle, based on the Ford Fusion Hybrid, which incorporates higher-resolution cameras with wider dynamic ranges, increased computer processing power, and heating and cooling systems improvements. [23]

Argo planned to deliver autonomous driving technology for shared fleets rather than personal ownership with applications including ride-hailing and goods delivery services. [35]  

Road testing

Argo has self-driving vehicle testing locations in Pittsburgh and Dearborn, Michigan as part of its research and development initiatives. In early 2018, Argo began testing vehicles in Miami, Florida marking the first time vehicles were tested outside the company’s home territories of Detroit and Pittsburgh. [36] Additional test sites for the Argo and Ford collaboration included Washington, D.C., [37] and Austin, Texas. [38] Argo began testing out of its Palo Alto engineering center after receiving its permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles in January 2019. [39] The expansion to additional urban test sites allowed the company to study the unique driving behavior and road culture of each city. [40]  Argo’s testing included millions of simulations to represent various weather, infrastructure, pedestrian, and other conditions. [35]

By 2021 Argo AI was testing the VW IDBUZZ on public roads in Munich. [41] In May 2022, Argo AI started testing on public roads in Austin and Miami using a modified Ford Escape Hybrid. [42] [43]

University research

In 2017, Argo announced university partnerships with Carnegie Mellon University and the Georgia Institute of Technology to research computer vision and machine learning technologies. [44]

In June 2019, Argo announced a $15 million investment over five years to create the Carnegie Mellon University Argo AI Center for Autonomous Vehicle Research, which would have focused on advanced algorithms for autonomous vehicles, specifically for advanced perception and decision-making capabilities. [45] [20] The announcement follows the company’s introduction of its open source data set, a set of highly curated maps and data released to further the study of autonomous vehicle research and development. [46] As of 2020, research topics slated for study at the research center included smart sensor fusion, 3D scene understanding, urban simulation, map-based perception, behavior prediction, and software validation. [22]

See also

Aurora Innovation

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vehicular automation</span> Automation for various purposes of vehicles

Vehicular automation involves the use of mechatronics, artificial intelligence, and multi-agent systems to assist the operator of a vehicle such as a car, lorry, aircraft, or watercraft. A vehicle using automation for tasks such as navigation to ease but not replace human control, qualify as semi-autonomous, whereas a fully self-operated vehicle is termed autonomous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waymo</span> Autonomous car technology company

Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mobileye</span> Israeli information technology company

Mobileye Global Inc. is an Israeli autonomous driving company. It is developing self-driving technologies and advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) including cameras, computer chips, and software. Mobileye was acquired by Intel in 2017 and went public again in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of self-driving cars</span> Overview of the history of self-driving cars

Experiments have been conducted on self-driving cars since 1939; promising trials took place in the 1950s and work has proceeded since then. The first self-sufficient and truly autonomous cars appeared in the 1980s, with Carnegie Mellon University's Navlab and ALV projects in 1984 and Mercedes-Benz and Bundeswehr University Munich's Eureka Prometheus Project in 1987. In 1988, William L Kelley patented the first modern collision Predicting and Avoidance devices for Moving Vehicles. then, numerous major companies and research organizations have developed working autonomous vehicles including Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Continental Automotive Systems, Autoliv Inc., Bosch, Nissan, Toyota, Audi, Volvo, Vislab from University of Parma, Oxford University and Google. In July 2013, Vislab demonstrated BRAiVE, a vehicle that moved autonomously on a mixed traffic route open to public traffic.

From 2014 until 2024, Apple undertook a research and development effort to develop an electric and self-driving car, codenamed "Project Titan". Apple never openly discussed any of its automotive research, but around 5,000 employees were reported to be working on the project as of 2018. In May 2018, Apple reportedly partnered with Volkswagen to produce an autonomous employee shuttle van based on the T6 Transporter commercial vehicle platform. In August 2018, the BBC reported that Apple had 66 road-registered driverless cars, with 111 drivers registered to operate those cars. In 2020, it was believed that Apple was still working on self-driving related hardware, software and service as a potential product, instead of actual Apple-branded cars. In December 2020, Reuters reported that Apple was planning on a possible launch date of 2024, but analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claimed it would not be launched before 2025 and might not be launched until 2028 or later.

A robotaxi, also known as robot taxi, robo-taxi, self-driving taxi or driverless taxi, is an autonomous car operated for a ridesharing company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volkswagen ID. Buzz</span> Battery electric minivan

The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is a battery electric minivan produced by German manufacturer Volkswagen. Based on the dedicated battery electric MEB platform, it is the first production electric minivan from Volkswagen and part of the Volkswagen ID. series. A retro styled minivan, the design of the ID. Buzz is inspired by the Volkswagen Type 2 (T1) Microbus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Urmson</span> CEO of self-driving technology company Aurora

Chris Urmson is a Canadian engineer, academic, and entrepreneur known for his work on self-driving car technology. He cofounded Aurora Innovation, a company developing self-driving technology, in 2017 and serves as its CEO. Urmson was instrumental in pioneering and advancing the development of self-driving vehicles since the early 2000s.

Cruise LLC is an American self-driving car company headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2013 by Kyle Vogt and Dan Kan, Cruise tests and develops autonomous car technology. The company is a largely autonomous subsidiary of General Motors. Following a series of incidents, it suspended operations in October 2023, and Kyle Vogt resigned as CEO in November 2023. The company began returning its vehicles to public roads in May 2024.

aiMotive is an autonomous vehicle technology company. The company aims to work with automotive manufacturers and Tier1s to enable automated technologies. aiMotive describes its approach as "vision-first", a system that primarily relies on cameras and artificial intelligence to detect its surroundings. The technology is designed to be implemented by automobile manufacturers to create autonomous vehicles, which can operate in all conditions and locations. In September 2017, PSA Group teamed up with AImotive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-driving truck</span> Type of autonomous vehicle

A self-driving truck, also known as an autonomous truck or robo-truck, is an application of self-driving technology aiming to create trucks that can operate without human input. Alongside light, medium, and heavy-duty trucks, many companies are developing self-driving technology in semi trucks to automate highway driving in the delivery process.

Nuro, Inc. is an American robotics company based in Mountain View, California. Founded by Jiajun Zhu and Dave Ferguson, Nuro develops autonomous delivery vehicles and is the first company to receive an autonomous exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Drive.ai, a subsidiary of Apple Inc., is an American technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California that uses artificial intelligence to make self-driving systems for cars. It has demonstrated a vehicle driving autonomously with a safety driver only in the passenger seat. To date, the company has raised approximately $77 million in funding. Drive.ai's technology can be modified to turn a vehicle autonomous.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zoox (company)</span> American company developing self-driving taxis

Zoox, Inc. is a subsidiary of Amazon developing autonomous vehicles that provide mobility as a service. It is headquartered in Foster City, California and has offices of operations in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington. Zoox sits in the Amazon Devices & Services organization alongside other Amazon units like Amazon Lab126, Amazon Alexa, and Kuiper Systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pony.ai</span> Autonomous vehicle technology company

Pony.ai is a global autonomous vehicle technology company co-located in Silicon Valley, Beijing, and Guangzhou.

WeRide is an international L4 autonomous driving technology company. WeRide is the only tech company in the world that holds driverless permits in China, the US, the UAE and Singapore.

Aurora Innovation, Inc., doing business as Aurora, is a self-driving vehicle technology company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Aurora has developed the Aurora Driver, a computer system that can be integrated into cars for autonomous driving. Aurora was co-founded by Chris Urmson, the former chief technology officer of Google/Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving team, which became known as Waymo, as well as by Sterling Anderson, former head of Tesla Autopilot, and Drew Bagnell, former head of Uber's autonomy and perception team.

Motional is an American autonomous vehicle company founded in March 2020 as a joint venture between automaker Hyundai Motor Group and auto supplier Aptiv. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Motional also maintains operations in Pittsburgh, Singapore, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Motional began testing its newest generation of vehicles in Las Vegas, Nevada, in February 2021, and also operates vehicles in Pittsburgh and Santa Monica, California.

Plus is an American autonomous driving technology company based in Santa Clara, California. The company develops Level 4 autonomous driving technology for commercial freight trucks. In 2019, the company completed the first cross-country driverless freight delivery in the U.S. The company's self-driving system began to be used commercially in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TuSimple</span> Autonomous trucking company

TuSimple Holdings, Inc. is a Chinese autonomous trucking company, based in San Diego, California, with offices in Arizona, Texas, and China. It was founded in 2015 by Xiaodi Hou and Mo Chen. In December 2023, the company announced that it would be closing its U.S. business and moving to China.

References

  1. "See what's happening" . Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  2. "Argo AI's Corporate Headquarters to Locate at 3 Crossings | 3 Crossings". 3crossingspgh.com. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  3. "Argo AI to move to 3 Crossings project in the Strip District, sources say". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Relentless Startup Fast-Tracking Ford's Self-Driving Cars". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  5. 1 2 "Ford Invests $1 Billion In Robotics Startup In Driverless Car Quest". 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  6. Wayland, Michael (2020-06-02). "Volkswagen closes $2.6 billion investment in self-driving start-up Argo AI". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  7. "Amazon Was a Secret Player in Ford and VW-Backed Argo's Demise". Bloomberg. 22 November 2022.
  8. 1 2 "Ford Disbands Argo AI Autonomous Vehicle Unit, Posts Loss". U.S. News & World Report. October 26, 2022. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  9. Boudette, Neal E. (2019-07-17). "Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are 'Way in the Future'". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  10. "Can Argo.AI Make Ford & Volkswagen Self-Driving Leaders?". CleanTechnica. 2020-07-05. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  11. "Ford Fulfills Earnings Guidance, Has Strong Cash Flow in Q3; Will Accelerate Development of L2+/L3 ADAS Technology" (PDF) (Press release). Dearborn, Michigan: Ford. 2022-10-26. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  12. "Autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI is shutting down". Engadget. 26 October 2022. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
  13. "The Station: Bird spikes Circ in the Middle East, Kitty Hawk folds Flyer, Cruise attempts a hiring coup". TechCrunch. 7 June 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  14. "Self-driving vehicle startup Argo AI completes $2.6B deal with Volkswagen, expands to Europe". TechCrunch. 2 June 2020. Archived from the original on June 2, 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Korosec, Kirsten (2017-08-16). "An inside look at Ford's $1 billion bet on Argo AI". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  16. "Argo closes $2.6 billion round from VW at a $7.25 billion valuation". VentureBeat. 2020-06-02. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  17. 1 2 "BRYAN SALESKY". Automotive News. 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  18. Thibodeau, Ian. "Michigan, not Silicon Valley, produced Ford's self-driving gurus". Detroit News. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  19. "Why Detroit's Streets Are Challenging for Driverless Car Tests by Ford's Partner". www.deadlinedetroit.com. Retrieved 2020-07-27.
  20. 1 2 "Argo AI is investing $15 million into a self-driving car research center at CMU". TechCrunch. 24 June 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  21. Bhuiyan, Johana (2016-12-12). "Uber has lost three of its top self-driving engineers". Vox. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  22. 1 2 Gardner, Greg. "Ford's Argo AI Invests $15 Million For Robocar Research Center At Carnegie Mellon". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  23. 1 2 "Argo AI reveals its third-generation driverless car". VentureBeat. 2019-06-12. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  24. 1 2 3 "VW invests $2.6 billion in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance". TechCrunch. 12 July 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  25. Lanhee Lee, Jane; Jin, Hyunjoo (2021-06-09). "Argo AI's CEO says IPO expected within next year". Reuters. Retrieved 2022-07-05.
  26. "Argo, Ford to launch self-driving vehicles on Lyft's ride-hailing app". 2021-07-21. Retrieved 2023-06-22.
  27. "Pittsburgh AV startup Argo AI expands to Los Angeles with new engineering and development office". The Business Journals. 2020-02-17. Retrieved 2022-03-09.
  28. "Amazon Was a Secret Player in Ford and VW-Backed Argo's Demise".
  29. "Volkswagen Annual Report 2022 key events". 2022-12-01.
  30. "Argo AI will cease operations as Ford and Volkswagen pull investments".
  31. "VW will test its autonomous ID Buzz in the US starting this month".
  32. Coren, Michael J. (12 July 2019). "The staggering cost of self-driving cars is behind Ford and Volkswagen's new partnership". Quartz. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  33. "Automated Vehicles for Safety". NHTSA. 2017-09-07. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  34. Abuelsamid, Sam. "Argo AI And Ford Double Down On Lidar, Acquire Princeton Lightwave". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  35. 1 2 "Detroiter Magazine: April 2020". Issuu . 31 March 2020. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  36. "Ford's Argo AI Welcomed to Miami for Self-Driving Car Testing". www.govtech.com. March 2018. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  37. Hawkins, Andrew J. (2018-10-22). "Ford will test self-driving cars in Washington, DC, with an emphasis on 'equity'". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  38. Wayland, Michael (2019-09-25). "Ford selects Austin to test, deploy autonomous vehicles". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  39. "Argo AI receives permit to test AVs in California". Automotive News. 2019-01-29. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  40. "Robotaxis as the norm are still 'far away'". Automotive News. 2019-09-23. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  41. "Starting today, prototypes of the Volkswagen #IDBUZZAD can be seen on the streets of Munich and Freising in Germany for the first time". 2021-09-20.
  42. "Argo AI Begins Driverless Vehicle Operations in Miami & Austin" (Press release). Argo AI. 2022-05-17. Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  43. Jay Ramey (2022-05-18). "Argo AI Is Testing Driverless Cars in These Cities". Autoweek . Retrieved 2022-05-21.
  44. Tobin, Debra (2017-11-22). "Argo AI collaborates with CMU, Georgia Tech researchers on self-driving cars". The Robotics Institute Carnegie Mellon University. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  45. "Argo AI and CMU team up in research partnership". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2020-07-16.
  46. "Self-driving car startup Argo AI is giving researchers free access to its HD maps". TechCrunch. 19 June 2019. Retrieved 2020-07-16.