Ford announced the creation of a new wholly owned subsidiary called Latitude AI to lead its efforts to develop an unattended, hands-free, eyes-free driving system. The company has rehired about 550 employees from Argo AI, the autonomous vehicle operator that closed last year after Ford pulled its funding.
Latitude AI will be headquartered in Pittsburgh, which is where Argo AI was previously headquartered and has emerged in recent years as a hub for AV startups and research. Additional engineering centers will be established in Dearborn, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California. The company will also operate a highway speed test track in Greenville, South Carolina.
Latitude AI will be headquartered in Pittsburgh, which is where Argo AI was previously headquartered
Ford is selecting its chief executive officer of ADAS technologies, Sammy Omari, to serve as CEO of Latitude AI and Peter Car as chief technology officer, overseeing Latitude’s product and technical development.
The company will focus on products such as Ford’s BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system. BlueCruise is a Level 2 system, which means that the vehicle controls important functions such as acceleration and braking, as well as lane centering and automatic lane changing. But while drivers can take their hands off the wheel and their feet off the pedals, they must keep their eyes on the road and be ready to take control at a moment’s notice. Ford said BlueCruise-equipped vehicles have already driven a total of 30 million miles.
When Argo AI closed, Ford said it would shift its spending from Tier 4 driverless technology to Tier 2 and Tier 3 driver assistance products. “We are optimistic about the future of L4 ADAS, but cost-effective, fully autonomous vehicles at scale they’re a long way off and we won’t necessarily have to create that technology ourselves,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the time.
To be sure, Tier 4 autonomous vehicles are enormously expensive to develop and maintain. And the return on that investment continues to be pushed far into the future, with many operators insisting on the need to move slowly as the technology matures. Today, several hundred autonomous vehicles associated with companies like Waymo, Cruise, Zoox, and Motional are operating in half a dozen cities, with only a small percentage generating revenue from ridesharing.
From Ford’s point of view, it would rather collect monthly ADAS subscription fees from its millions of customers than wait years, or possibly decades, for an urban robotaxi service to start turning a profit.
From Ford’s point of view, it would rather collect monthly ADAS subscription fees from its millions of customers than wait years, or potentially decades, for an urban robotaxi service to start turning a profit.
Still, the closure of Argo AI shocked the industry, as Ford was one of the first big automakers to give voice to the growing pessimism around AVs. (Volkswagen was also one of Argo’s main financiers.) Meanwhile, Argo’s main rivals Waymo and Cruise have undergone major leadership shakeups. Valuations have fallen as terms have been extended further and further. Companies that went public by SPAC have seen their share prices fall. Costs have grown while revenues have been slow in coming.
Ford isn’t the only automaker betting big on driver-assist technology. Mercedes-Benz and Volvo are investing heavily in unattended highway driving features, which include the use of long-range lidar laser sensors to improve the vehicle’s object detection capabilities. And GM has said that its Ultra Cruise system will work in 95 percent of driving scenarios. Ford has yet to announce any lidar-equipped vehicles of its own, but no doubt Latitude AI will be involved in any future announcements.
