Argo AI

Argo AI burst on the scene in 2017 with a $1 billion investment from Ford, barely six months after being founded. CEO Bryan Salesky had spent three years at Google's self-driving car program (now Waymo), while co-founder Peter Rander previously worked on Uber's autonomous vehicle program. The partnership combined Ford's virtual driver system and machine-learning expertise with Argo's robotics talent to develop a Level 4 self-driving system.

Volkswagen joined in 2019 with a $2.6 billion investment at a valuation of more than $7 billion. By 2020, Argo employed more than 1,000 people, and VW's Munich-based Autonomous Intelligent Driving unit was absorbed into Argo, becoming its European headquarters. By 2021, Argo AI was valued at $12.4 billion with 2,000 employees, offices on two continents, and testing in seven cities.

In May 2022, Argo launched driverless test rides in Miami and Austin, a milestone for the company that had been founded in 2016. Argo operated pilot programs with Lyft's ride-hailing platform and Walmart grocery delivery in both cities. The company operated testing across eight cities in the U.S. and Europe—Pittsburgh, Detroit, Palo Alto, Munich, Hamburg, Washington D.C., Miami, and Austin.

There were plans to bring a self-driving taxi service to market by 2021, rivaling Waymo and GM's Cruise, but Ford CEO Jim Farley said in October 2022 that the company had anticipated Level 4 technology coming to market by 2021, "but things have changed," and that profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale were "a long way off". Argo was unable to find additional funding from new investors, so Ford decided to stop funding it.

In October 2022, Argo AI shut down. Argo's operations ceased and its employees and parts were absorbed by its main backers Ford and Volkswagen, with some employees offered positions at the two automakers while others lost their jobs. Resources from Argo AI were transitioned to Ford's ADAS effort Latitude AI and VW's ADAS efforts CARIAD.