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Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen AG have discontinued their joint effort to develop self-driving cars, and this was confirmed this week. Argo AI autonomous driving tech company, which is backed by the automakers’ JV, announced it is also shutting down.
Ford said this week it came to a conclusion that the large-scale commercialization of self-driving vehicles was more distant than expected. Still, it has remained upbeat about the future of fully autonomous EVs. However, it realized that these vehicles are, to some degree, a long way off.
The automaker’s chief executive Jim Farley further said that in having them in the future, creating the technology by themselves may not even be necessary, suggesting that others can do it and they will use the creation through deals.
As per CNN Business, now that it has canceled the joint effort for fully self-driving cars with Volkswagen, it has now chosen to focus on less complicated tasks instead, such as the development of simple driver-assist technologies which were already proven to be easier to build up and bring to the market.
Volkswagen also shared similar plans following the closure of Argo AI and the discontinuation of business with Ford Motor. It said in a statement that it will no longer invest in Argo AI and will be expanding collaboration with other partners instead.
Despite the failed joint effort with Ford when they backed Argo AI, VW said that its goal for autonomous driving remains - for customers to be able to book the autonomously driving “ID.Buzz” in Hamburg with MOIA ride-sharing service by 2025.
"Focus and speed are what count, especially when it comes to developing technologies of the future,” VW’s chief, Oliver Blume, said in a statement. “Our goal is to offer our customers the most powerful functions at the earliest possible time and to set up our development as cost-effectively as possible."
Meanwhile, Argo AI confirmed it is closing, and some of its employees are transferring to Ford Motor. They are most likely to continue with their work related to autonomous driving. At Ford, they may be posted to help with the advancement of its BlueCruise driver-assist technology.
Photo by: Shantanu Goyal/Unsplash
