The investment to be made by Volkswagen in Argo AI, Ford’s autonomous vehicle company, which was announced last July, has been finalized recently.. Volkswagen will invest exactly $2.6 billion, and with this investment, the value of Argo AI will reach $7.25 billion.. Although both companies took economic blows due to the pandemic, this agreement was achieved.. This deal transforms Argo into a global company with two customers, VW and Ford.. Autonomous Intelligent Driving, a subsidiary established in 2017 to develop autonomous vehicle technology for the VW Group, will be incorporated into Argo AI. AID’s Munich offices will become Argo’s European headquarters.. Argo also has offices in Detroit, Palo Alto and Cranbury, New Jersey.. The company has maps and test fleets of autonomous vehicles on public roads in Austin, Miami, and Washington DC.
Argo AI develops a virtual driver system and high-resolution maps designed for Ford’s autonomous vehicles. Ford and VW also announced that they will share Argo AI’s autonomous vehicle development costs as part of the agreement.
Autonomous Vehicles Aren’t Cheap to Build
Ford Autonomous Vehicle LLE CEO John Lawler wrote in an article that “Safe Building scalable and reliable autonomous vehicles is no small task.. It is also not a cheap job.”
Two years ago, Ford said it would spend $4 billion by 2023 on LLC companies dedicated to making autonomous vehicles.. Ford Autonomous Vehicle LLC houses the company’s autonomous systems integration, autonomous vehicle research and advanced engineering, user experience, business strategy, and business development teams.
Sharing development costs reduces Ford’s overall spend on autonomous vehicles, Lawler said. stressed that it does not mean. Instead, the company said it would redeem the money for its autonomous services to improve transportation.
Despite this shared investment, Ford and VW will not cooperate in any way on autonomous vehicle service.
Same. Lawler, who was vice president of mobility partnerships at Ford at the time, said the US automaker will “remain independent and fiercely competitive in creating autonomous vehicle service.”
Argo AI’s board of directors will consist of VW, Ford and Argo. .