Why Ford And VW Shut Down Their Multi-Billion Dollar Self-Driving Project

Ford invested $1 billion in self-driving startup Argo AI in 2017, and Volkswagen joined with a $2.6 billion investment 2 years later. It was an attempt to match rivals such as Uber, Tesla and Google. At its height, Argo AI was reportedly valued at $12.4 billion. But in 2022 Argo AI shut down. Ford said the it didn't attract new investors, and that profitability was "a long way off". Both automakers are spending big in electrification - $50 billion in Ford's case and more than three times that in VW's case. VW still pursued autonomous driving projects for commercial uses, and Ford focused on more modest L2 and L3 driver assistance technology.

Chapters:
0:00 — Introduction
01:21— Argo A.I.
04:14 — Why did it fail?
08:24 — Mobility doesn't pay
10:33 — The future

Producer: Robert Ferris
Editor: Jacob Harrell
Senior Managing Producer: Tala Hadavi
Graphics: Jason Reginato, Christina Locopo, Mallory Brangan

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Why Ford And VW Shut Down Their Multi-Billion Dollar Self Driving Project

[DanFitz]

As a robotics engineer, I see two very different technology stratagies. You can either focus on really good performance in a limited area, then expand that area to scale (what everyone else is doing), or focus on decent performance in any area, then improve that performance everywhere (what Tesla is doing.) Understanding this difference is critical to understanding why all the other L4/5 efforts are failing. They look great in their geofenced areas with custom high-res maps, but can't generalize. They didn't anticipate the "long-tail" of challenging circumstances encountered in real diving.

[aminesaib]

I recently had the opportunity to ride in a Waymo self-driving car for the first time in downtown Phoenix and I must say, it completely blew my mind. The ride arrived just three minutes after I ordered it and there was no driver or supervisor in the car, it was just me and the vehicle. The instructions were simple and clear - I used the app to open the door and start the ride. I also had the option to pull over at any time or change my destination if needed. At one point, the car had to make an unprotected left turn from a small street onto a busy one with a stop sign, and it did so with grace. I understand that Waymo uses Lidar and can only operate in certain environments, but nevertheless, the experience was truly mind-blowing. It felt like the future had finally arrived!

[joebidenisyourpresidentget]

If you ever felt useless, remember that this company was worth $12, 400, 000, 000 dollars and never got anywhere.

[alexalvarez]

I instantly lost respect for this guy when he actually said Tesla's self driving is "a joke". And almost immediately after goes on to praise GM's CEO. I suspect something fishy going on here

[quazeemalimi]

The issue is, most companies are interested in self driving just to make sure they can cut cost on labor cost and maximize the highest possible profit with the lowest labor cost. That why they all push for self driving

[jhmcd]

This video is incomplete. The legacy automakers tried full autonomous vehicles back in the late 80's early 90's. Of course the computers were laughably large but it did result in many of the safety features we use today like automatic breaking, adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist. I would say the only problem is that they recognized the tech wasn't going to be ready for years out, and stopped working on it just as Tesla came around.

[evitoonbundit]

Looks like financial analyst never even looked at or understood the underlying technologies and issues like what type of sensors to use, data collection or AI and the requirement for data collection on a truly massive scale and the capability to exploit that for training.

[dam]

Whoever your guy is saying that Tesla’s tech is a joke doesn’t have an understanding about the AI that will win this race. Tesla is doing this completely different and their gamble has paid off with their huge internal investment in compute and the now millions of miles each day that are training their supercomputer. You might want to get an AI engineer to comment next time. This comment won’t age well when Tesla wins this 🤦🏼‍♂️

[venox]

looks like Tesal didn't send the check to that "guy", to call it a joke with elaborating why is a low blow. I wonder if he got offended by Musk lol

[enoughofthis]

Marry Bara was also committed to Nikola motors( Trevor meltdown) and fraudstown motors

[iali]

The guy that said Tesla’s system was a joke clearly doesn’t own the car and hasn’t tried it. He also said at the end that he expected Argo to be there at the end of the decade. Dumb analysts barely know anything real.

[florensvb]

They don’t at all go into the differences of fully geo fenced pre mapped zones (whate everyone does) vs only using off the shelf video cameras (what tesla does). Neither do they talk about using a neural network and how much data it takes to train that.

[philnichols]

My wife and I have a 2020 Tesla Model 3, dual-motor, long range with the full self driving option. Living in the Black Hills of South Dakota I use the FSD for all of my highway driving and frequently in town traffic. As you may know, I need to keep one hand on the steering wheel and always monitor the FSD's driving. It is not perfect, not yet, but for highway driving, it is great. Two summers ago I was returning from Deadwood, South Dakota on the north-south Highway 385. It was about two weeks prior to the Sturgis Rally. The Tesla was in cruise mode with full self driving engaged..
My speed was a steady 6o MPH and the Tesla was in the center of the lane. My right hand was on the steering wheel and the speed was a constant 60 MPH and I was in a long straight stretch About half-way between Deadwood and my turn at highway 44 I noticed a group of motorcycles coming toward me. As a former motorcyclist my thought was "boy, they are really bunched-up".
When the motorcycles got very close, I was slammed into my driver's side door. I was startled and then noticed that the Tesla was now riding on the right white line. The car had moved over about six feet in the "blink of an eye". The only explanation I have is that the front camera saw a motorcycle cross the center line and took evasive action. Autodrive may have saved my life.

So when "experts" say that Tesla's full self-driving is (whatever), they do not have the real facts. In the future, hopefully your comments will be part of your embarrassment.

[mgdubya]

I have Tesla's FSD, and it's no joke. The rate that is it improving is stunning. Cannot wait for my next update coming this week.

[gabokk]

As a ride shared driver it has been always so obvious that ride share companies cannot evolve to own the fleets, they just profit from someone else owning the car and doing the maintenance for free. It was so absurd those companies invested in self driving. It would make more sense they invested in self cleaning, self repairs, self fueling, and in parking space in the first place.

[dlewis]

I recognized all along that Tesla had this huge advantage because they are building the technology as an added feature to their core business of selling automobiles. And they are using their customers to train the system in real world conditions. Meanwhile those other companies are paying people to do all that.

[czarescamilla]

Dude actually said tesla FSD is a joke and its last amongst other companies. Apparently has not seen any of the vids and the astounding progress which will get solved soon. Yes im aware of musk optimism failed attempt for said dates however i own a model y with beta and progress is mind blowing. Its not if its a matter of time before tesla solves it

[donbakerseattle]

Looking forward to seeing a Mercedes cruising at 40pmh on the Autobahn. Such amazing software!

[tzemgametv]

I was a part of Argo AI in Munich - sad for everybody who lose their jobs

[bboybasics]

"Tesla, who isn't a leader" "Tesla's technology is kind of a joke" How can you diminishes that freely Tesla's effort? I mean even if you don't agree with the strategy and think it will not work at the end, you can't pretend they are not serious about it. They designed their own chips, their own training computers, they already make and sell millions of data acquiring vehicles. They even presented some of the work they've done. Denying that is kind of unbelievable...
"It's decent like blue cruise" I think the joke is on you. To accept publishing such thing tells a lot about your editorial standards...