{"id":128226,"date":"2022-07-08T21:23:21","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T21:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=128226"},"modified":"2022-07-08T21:23:21","modified_gmt":"2022-07-08T21:23:21","slug":"watch-this-self-driving-racecar-go-173-mph-with-no-human-driver-inside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/business\/watch-this-self-driving-racecar-go-173-mph-with-no-human-driver-inside\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch this self-driving racecar go 173 mph with no human driver inside"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><cite>Washington, DC (CNN)<\/cite>Argo AI, the self-driving company backed by Ford and Volkswagen, is shutting down its Washington, DC operation as part of a broader round of layoffs impacting about 150 people across the company. <\/p>\n<p>Argo AI had planned to launch a robotaxi service in DC last year, but the launch was delayed during the pandemic.<br \/>\n&#8220;We learned what we needed to through the in-market testing there and continue to test in Miami and Austin,&#8221; Ford spokesperson Jennifer Flake said of DC. VW declined to comment. <\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p>Argo AI&#8217;s workforce had grown to about 2,000 people from more than 1,000 in 2020.<strong> <\/strong>The layoffs were first reported by Automotive News. The closing of Argo AI&#8217;s DC operation has not been previously reported.<\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p>Ford CEO Jim Farley had said on the company&#8217;s latest earnings call this spring that self-driving technology is &#8220;expensive stuff,&#8221; and that it was becoming more interested in using the tech for moving things like cargo.<\/p>\n<p>Many of Argo AI&#8217;s competitors, including Alphabet&#8217;s Waymo and Toyota-backed Aurora, have already chosen to focus more on self-driving trucks, which industry experts say are much easier to build than robotaxis. The self-driving industry, including Argo AI, have learned that it&#8217;s a tall order to teach a vehicle to safely navigate a bustling city, with construction sites, pedestrians, cyclists and emergency vehicles. Trucks, on the other hand, mostly stick to highways.<br \/>\nFarley also described access to capital as &#8220;very critical&#8221; as the automakers seek to fund Argo AI for &#8220;many years to come.&#8221; Startups are finding it more challenging to raise funding this year amid inflation, rising interest rates, a declining stock market and faltering economy.<\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p>Argo AI was founded in 2016 and Ford became the majority stakeholder in 2017. VW invested in 2020. The automakers now own equal shares of the company.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Argo AI is wrapping up its testing of self-driving vehicles in Washington, DC.\" class=\"media__image\" src=\"\/\/cdn.cnn.com\/cnnnext\/dam\/assets\/220708122235-argo-ai-self-driving-car-washington-d-c-july-2022-large-169.jpg\"><br \/>\nArgo AI appears to be making significant progress toward a robotaxi service. In May, it announced it was offering self-driving rides without a human test driver behind the wheel to its employees in Austin and Miami. (Two of Argo AI&#8217;s rivals, Waymo and GM&#8217;s Cruise, operate robotaxis in Phoenix and San Francisco, respectively.)<br \/>\n&#8220;With incredible growth and progress made in our mission to deploy driverless vehicles, we are making prudent adjustments to our business plan to best continue on a path for success,&#8221; Argo AI spokesman Alan Hall said in a statement.<br \/>\nDC&#8217;s government allows testing of fully autonomous vehicles, but companies can not legally operate robotaxis in the city. Argo AI first announced in 2018 plans to test self-driving vehicles in the nation&#8217;s capital. It planned for the DC robotaxi service to be its second market after Miami, where it was already testing.<br \/>\nSherif Marakby, who was then CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, said at the time that expanding to DC was &#8220;an enormous opportunity to understand how a comprehensive self-driving business could be utilized.&#8221; Marakby left Ford in 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile.<\/p>\n<ul><\/ul>\n<p>The city will need to develop a policy to certify such a service, but that&#8217;s not being created currently, according to German Vigil, a spokesperson for the District Department of Transportation.<br \/>\nArgo AI and Ford declined to say if regulations were a factor in the departure.<br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2022\/07\/08\/business\/argo-ai-ford-vw-layoffs\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC (CNN)Argo AI, the self-driving company backed by Ford and Volkswagen, is shutting down its Washington, DC operation as part of a broader round [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":128225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - 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