San Francisco, California 一 Argo AI, Lyft and Ford have joined forces in a collaboration that hopes to bring autonomous ride-sharing to the public, combining the automotive, AI and app expertise of all three brands.
“This collaboration marks the first time all the pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together this way,“ said Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green, in a press release from Thursday.
“Each company brings the scale, knowledge and capability in their area of expertise that is necessary to make autonomous ride-hailing a business reality.”
Miami, Florida will play host to the first passenger rides later this year as Argo/Ford AVs will be integrated into the city’s pre-existing Lyft network, with a second trial period in Austin, Texas to launch at some point in 2022.
The ultimate goal of the three companies is to have at least 1,000 AVs integrated into the Lyft network over the next five years.
“This collaboration is special because we’re executing on a shared vision for improving the safety, access to and affordability of transportation in our cities,” said Argo AI founder and CEO Bryan Salesky.
“Beyond the link that Lyft provides to the customer, we’ll be able to work together to define where an autonomous service will benefit communities the most and ensure we’re deploying the technology safely.”
Ford’s CEO of AVs, Scott Griffith, also commented “Argo and Ford are currently piloting, mapping and preparing for commercial operations of autonomous vehicles in more cities than any other AV collaboration, and this new agreement is a crucial step toward full commercial operations一the addition of Lyft’s world-class transportation network.”
