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

Ford will launch a fleet of autonomous vehicles with Lyft and Argo AI by the end of the year, the two companies said on Wednesday.

Self-driving tours with security drivers will begin this year in Miami. The companies said they plan to expand to Austin, Texas in 2022 and deploy around 1,000 self-driving cars in multiple markets within five years.

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

“Every company brings the scale, knowledge and capabilities in their area of ​​expertise that are needed to make autonomous ride-hailing a business reality,” said Logan Green, co-founder and CEO of Lyft.

As part of the deal, Lyft will receive 2.5% of the common stock of Argo AI, the Ford and Volkswagen-backed autonomous vehicle startup that is reportedly preparing to go public as early as this year.

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

Ford and Argo AI tested fleets across the country in Austin; Detroit; Miami; Palo Alto, California; Pittsburgh; and Washington, DC