Ford Investing $1 Billion in Startup Founded By Two Autonomous Car Pioneers

  • Argo AI will be tasked with developing virtual driver platform
  • Ford plans to own majority stake; pledges equity, independence

Race To Build Self-Driving Cars Accelerates

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Ford Motor Co. is investing $1 billion in a months-old startup founded by two pioneers in the nascent autonomous vehicle sector.

The Pittsburgh-based artificial intelligence company Argo AI will develop the brains -- specifically, a virtual driver system -- for the fully autonomous vehicles Ford has promised to bring to market in 2021. Founders Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander are former leaders of the self-driving car teams at Uber Technologies Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.