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Ford Motor Co. and its partner Argo AI will launch autonomous driving service with Lyft Inc. in Miami and Austin, TX later this year. It will be the largest commercial deployment of robotic rides.
The deal announced Wednesday brings together the three essentials for deploying robot taxis – a major automaker, an autonomous tech creator and a major ridesharing company. The plan is to begin significantly expanding the initiative in 2023, with the ultimate goal of sending 1,000 autonomous vehicles to the six US cities where Argo has tested, including Washington.
As part of the deal, Lyft gets a 2.5% stake in Argo, which has received combined backing of $ 3.6 billion from Ford and Volkswagen AG. Lyft does not make a cash investment, but allows Argo access to fleet and safety data that will provide a detailed roadmap to help establish a large-scale robo-taxi service.
The partnership will bring Argo’s valuation to $ 12.4 billion, from a previous value of just over $ 7 billion, according to people familiar with the deal who were not authorized to discuss the details and asked not to be identified.
The robo-taxi service will begin with less than 100 self-driving Ford Escape hybrid sport utility vehicles in Miami and Austin, each accompanied by two human assistants – an emergency driver behind the wheel who is ready to take over if necessary, along with a worker who monitors the technology that drives the operation. Vehicles will not be limited to pre-approved routes and passengers will have the option to choose an autonomous vehicle in the Lyft app on their phone at no additional cost.
“You will be able to go from address to address, they will not be fixed routes,” Bryan Salesky, CEO of Argo, said in an interview. “It will be like a vehicle that you hail today, except that a robot is driving.”
The wide rollout on a familiar ridesharing app will help “standardize” autonomous driving technology for consumers who are reluctant to trust the technology, Jody Kelman, head of Lyft’s autonomous unit, said in an interview.
“We really want to help consumers with this transition to autonomous driving technology as a transportation option,” Kelman said. “We think the easiest way for a consumer to think about it is if the price is the same. It’s like any other trip on Lyft.
Ford, Argo, and Lyft are following Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, which operates self-driving minivans at a rideshare company in Chandler, Arizona, near Phoenix. General Motors Co.’s Cruise unit is also testing a self-driving rideshare business in San Francisco, but has not specified when it will go into commercial scale.
Salesky says his company’s initiative with Ford and Lyft is a more complex endeavor than the ones currently underway.
“We’re in much more difficult areas,” Salesky said. “We are in cities where the demand for ridesharing and freight delivery is high, which makes them good businesses. “
In addition to carpooling, the self-driving Ford Escapes will also be used to deliver groceries and other small items in partnership with other companies that Salesky has not identified.
The detailed market data Lyft provides will help accelerate the rollout, Salesky said.
“It helps us figure out where to put these vehicles,” Salesky said. “You really understand what the movement patterns are in cities to make sure we’re mapping and testing in the right areas. And the safety data will help us understand human driving performance.
Lyft sees the deal bringing together all of the players needed to start a robo-taxi business.
“This collaboration marks the first time that all pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together,” Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green said in a statement. “Each company brings the scale, knowledge and capabilities in their area of expertise that are necessary to make autonomous ride-hailing a business reality. “
Ford has partnered with Lyft since 2017, although the rideshare company also received a $ 500 million investment from GM in 2016. Kelman said GM was no longer represented on Lyft’s board and that the automaker was not currently suing a robot taxi. dealing with Lyft.
Deployment is a little earlier than expected. Ford had previously said debut was pushed back to 2022 due to delays related to the pandemic.
“This new agreement is a critical step towards full business operations,” said Scott Griffith, CEO of Ford’s autonomous vehicles and mobility business unit, in a statement, citing Lyft’s “world-class transportation network”. He said it was the start of “an important relationship between three dynamic companies”.
As Argo ramps up its full commercialization, it plans to go public as early as this year and separately conduct a private fundraiser this summer. Argo was founded in 2016 by Salesky, who helped launch Google’s self-driving car project that became Waymo, and Peter Rander, who previously ran the autonomous unit of Uber Technologies Inc ..
Salesky acknowledges that convincing suspicious commuters to try self-driving cars is one of the biggest challenges, but he believes they’ll find it’s actually safer.
“We’ve all had human drivers that we’d rather never ride with again,” Salesky said. “We believe that after you experience it, you will really enjoy it and want to ride ours.”
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