Ford Goes Big on AI With US$1 Billion Investment

Ford on Friday announced plans to invest US$1 billion over the next five years in the artificial intelligence startup Argo AI. The automaker has acquired majority ownership of Pittsburgh, Penn.-based Argo AI, which was founded past Google and Uber self-driving motorcar veterans Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander. Going forward, the startup will piece of work to develop a new software platform for Ford'southward fully democratic vehicle, which is expected to arrive in 2022.

Nextcar Bug art Salesky, Argo's CEO, formerly served as director of hardware development for cocky-driving cars at Google. Rander, the company'southward COO, was previously Uber's technology atomic number 82. Both are alumni of Carnegie Mellon National Robotics Engineering Center.

Ford said this investment puts it in a better place to bring cocky-driving cards to market place in the near term. The Argo AI team volition initially focus on supporting Ford's democratic vehicle development and product efforts, but may in the future look to license this engineering to other companies.

"The next decade will be defined by the automation of the machine, and autonomous vehicles will accept every bit significant an bear on on society as Ford's moving assembly line did 100 years ago," Ford President and CEO Mark Fields said in a statement. "As Ford expands to exist 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 almost term and by creating engineering science that could be licensed to others in the future."

Last year, Ford was among a grouping that invested $6.half dozen million in Civil Maps, a California kickoff-upward working on AI-powered mapping software for self-driving cars.

About Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's expert on fettle and smart home products. Teaching yoga for almost ten years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fitness trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, merely to proper name a few.