Ford forms automated driving subsidiary from Argo AI’s remains
Ford has launched a completely owned subsidiary — staffed by a whole bunch of former workers of Argo AI — that may initially concentrate on commercializing a hands-free, eyes-off driver-assistance system.
The brand new 550-person firm, referred to as Latitude AI, can be devoted to bettering Ford’s present superior driver-assistance system often called BlueCruise and growing new automated driving know-how for its next-generation of autos. Many of the firm consists of machine studying and robotics, cloud platform, mapping, sensors, check operations and programs and security engineers who labored at Argo AI, the autonomous automobile startup that folded final yr after Ford and VW pulled their backing.
Latitude is headquartered in Pittsburgh, the place Argo was additionally based mostly, and can have extra engineering hubs in Dearborn, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California. The corporate additionally will function a highway-speed check observe facility in Greenville, South Carolina. Sammy Omari, govt director of ADAS Applied sciences at Ford, additionally will function the CEO of Latitude. Ford named Peter Carr as Latitude’s CTO, who will oversee product and technical improvement, and David Gollob as president, who can be liable for enterprise operations.
“We see automated driving know-how as a possibility to redefine the connection between folks and their autos,” Doug Area, Ford’s chief superior product improvement and know-how officer, mentioned in a press release. “Prospects utilizing BlueCruise are already experiencing the advantages of hands-off driving. The deep expertise and expertise in our Latitude workforce will assist us speed up the event of all-new automated driving know-how — with the purpose of not solely making journey safer, much less anxious and extra pleasant, however finally over time giving our prospects a few of their day again.”
Argo AI burst on the scene in 2017, stacked with a $1 billion funding from Ford — and Iater an funding from VW. The startup shuttered all of a sudden in October 2022 after Ford and VW decided they’d now not pursue AV know-how, at the least not below the Argo umbrella. On the time, Ford mentioned it was making a strategic resolution to shift its assets to growing superior driver-assistance programs, and never autonomous automobile know-how that may be utilized to robotaxis. The corporate mentioned it recorded a $2.7 billion noncash, pretax impairment on its funding in Argo AI.
