Founded in 2016 in Pittsburgh by alumni from Google and Uber and actively supported by Volkswagen and Ford, Argo AI startup will be closed. This decision was agreed with the main investors, who will receive all the developments of the project, as well as most of the employees.
“Together with our shareholders, it has been decided that Argo AI will complete its mission as a company. Many employees will have the opportunity to continue working on self-driving cars at Ford or Volkswagen, while for others, the work will unfortunately end, ”the startup said in an official statement.
It is noted that all Argo AI employees will receive a severance pay that includes insurance and two separate bonuses. And those for whom there is no position in Volkswagen or Ford, in addition to this, will receive another compensation.
Earlier, Ford said that the American auto giant made a strategic decision to redirect its resources from the development of unmanned vehicles to the creation of advanced driver assistance systems.
Both Volkswagen and Ford have confirmed the end of their investment in Argo AI. But the manufacturers do not talk about how they will divide the assets and employees among themselves, of which there were about 2,000 people in the startup.
Over the six years of its existence, Argo AI has been able to attract investments in the amount of more than $3.6 billion. In addition to Volkswagen and Ford, the Lyft taxi aggregator, which owned a 2.5% stake in the startup, also invested in the promising project. Lyft, commenting on the closure of Argo AI, said that this would not interfere with their plans to introduce unmanned control systems, which the service will now deal with with other partners.
Source: Trash Box
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