Ford, VW-backed Argo AI is shutting down • TechCrunch

Argo AI, an autonomous automobile startup that burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion funding, is shutting down — its elements being absorbed into its two major backers: Ford and VW, in response to folks accustomed to the matter.

Throughout an all-hands assembly Wednesday, Argo AI staff have been instructed that some folks would obtain provides from the 2 automakers, in response to a number of sources who requested to not be named. It was unclear what number of could be employed into Ford or VW and which firms will get Argo’s know-how.

Staff have been instructed they’d obtain a severance package deal that features insurance coverage, a transaction bonus and termination pay. A number of folks instructed TechCrunch that it was a beneficiant package deal and that the founders of the corporate spoke on to its greater than 2,000 workforce.

TechCrunch will replace this story with official remark.

Argo was based in 2016 by Bryan Salesky and Pete Rander. The corporate got here out of stealth in February 2017 when Ford introduced it will make investments $1 billion over 5 years into Argo. Since then, the corporate has raised greater than $2.6 billion, primarily from Ford and VW, in a pursuit to develop, take a look at and ultimately commercialize its automated driving system.

The preliminary Ford funding got here at a very hype-y time for the nascent autonomous automobile business. Startups, many based by early pioneers of Google’s self-driving challenge, have been touchdown eye-popping enterprise capital offers. A string of acquisitions adopted: GM purchased Cruise for $1 billion in 2016; Delphi, which is now Aptiv, acquired nuTonomy for $450 million; and Amazon purchased Zoox.

The guarantees round commercializing AV know-how have confirmed harder than anticipated. A wave of consolidation washed over the business with firms folding, being absorbed into different firms, together with Apple, and others turning to SPACs in hopes of gaining the capital it must proceed its mission.

Argo appeared to be gaining floor up to now yr.  The corporate’s self-driving Ford Fusion automobiles, and now Ford Escape Hybrids, have been often seen testing on public roads in Austin, Detroit, Miami, Palo Alto and Pittsburgh, the place it’s headquartered. Within the EU, Argo was utilizing the all-electric Volkswagen ID Buzz for its testing applications in Hamburg and Munich. Argo additionally has a number of pilot applications underway in Austin, Miami and Pittsburgh with Lyft, Walmart and 412 Meals Rescue.

And simply final month the corporate revealed an ecosystem of services and products designed to help industrial supply and robotaxi operations. The merchandise — a listing that features fleet administration software program, information analytics, high-definition mapping and cloud-based communication instruments — stretches far past the self-driving system that permits a automobile to navigate metropolis streets with no human driver behind the wheel. Argo gave the impression to be telling the world it was open for enterprise.

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