Lyft Gets Equity Stake In Argo AI; Ford’s First Robotaxis Arrive In Late 2021

Lyft Gets Equity Stake In Argo AI; Ford’s First Robotaxis Arrive In Late 2021

Later in 2021, Lyft users in Austin, TX and Miami, FL will have the option to select an automated ... [+] Ford vehicle powered Argo AI's system. Lyft will get a stake in Argo AI in exchange for the data it is sharing with the company It's approaching five years since former Ford CEO Mark Fields announced plans to build automated ride-hailing vehicles (aka robotaxis) by 2021. Since then, Ford has made substantial investments in Argo AI and built up its mobility business. Meanwhile, in that interim, Lyft launched and eventually abandoned its own development program for an automated driving system (ADS). Lyft has now joined Ford and Volkswagen as the third outside investor into Argo AI and Ford automated vehicles will be deployed to carry Lyft passengers later this year in Austin, Texas and Miami. Argo AI was founded in late 2016 by Bryan Salesky, a veteran of the Google self-driving program and the software lead on the Carnegie Mellon team that won the DARPA Urban Challenge and Pete Rander, formerly of Uber and Carnegie Mellon. A few months later Ford invested $1 billion for a majority stake in Argo and the team based in Pittsburgh took over responsibility