[AutonomousVehicles] Ford and Argo AI launching self driving vehicle program

[Cornelius Butler]

Hi Fellow Committee Members,
I wanted to post some news items about what's going on in the self driving
car world. Ford in a partnership with Argo A.I. and Lyft are launching a
self driving program. I'm providing the link to the article and the text of
the article below:

Article Link:
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/21/ford-and-argo-ai-to-launch-self-driving-cars-with-lyft-by-end-of-year.html

Article Text:

Ford and Argo AI to launch self-driving cars with Lyft by the end of the
year

Ford will launch an autonomous vehicle fleet with Lyft and Argo AI by the
end of the year, the companies announced Wednesday.

Self-driving rides with safety drivers will begin this year in Miami. The
companies said they plan to expand to Austin, Texas, in 2022 and roll out
about 1,000 self-driving cars in multiple markets within five years.

The partnership comes as ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft ditch their
own in-house systems and instead look to outside partners for self-driving
technology. Lyft announced plans in April to sell its autonomous vehicle
unit to a subsidiary of Toyota for $550 million. In December, Uber sold its
self-driving unit to start-up Aurora — which is backed by Hyundai and
Amazon — amid safety concerns and extreme costs.

“Each company brings the scale, knowledge and capability in their area of
expertise that is necessary to make autonomous ride-hailing a business
reality,” said Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green.

As part of the agreement, Lyft will receive 2.5% common equity of Argo AI,
the Ford and Volkswagen-backed autonomous vehicle start-up that’s
reportedly preparing to go public as soon as this year.

The race to deploy self-driving vehicles is heating up nationwide. General
Motors CEO Mary Barra said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call
that she expects to offer consumers autonomous vehicles this decade.
Volkswagen is planning a self-driving microbus with Argo AI by 2025, while
Ford said in February it plans to invest $29 billion in autonomous and
electric vehicles through 2025.

Ford and Argo AI have been testing fleets nationwide in Austin; Detroit;
Miami; Palo Alto, California; Pittsburgh; and Washington, D.C.
watch now

-- 
Cornelius Butler
President
Butler New Media, LLC
"Creating A More Accessible World"
http://www.butlernewmedia.com
email: corn at butlernewmedia.com
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