Yet another self-driving company is letting its fully driverless vehicles cruise the streets. This time it’s Argo AI, a startup backed by Ford and Volkswagen, which began testing its robotic cars in two major cities in the US - Miami, Florida, and Austin, Texas.
The autonomous vehicle technology company ditched the human safety drivers and is now shuttling its employees around town. But Miami and Austin are just two of the eight cities where the startup is currently developing its technology.
Argo AI’s driverless operations will be conducted during “daytime business hours,” but these hours will eventually be extended to also include evenings.
This is a huge milestone for Argo AI, as the announcement comes after five years of hard work on developing and testing the Argo Autonomy Platform. This platform includes all the technology behind Argo’s autonomous driving capabilities: the software, hardware, HD maps, and backend support.
The fact that the company is testing its autonomous vehicle technology in eight densely populated cities around the world allows the system to learn from different challenging driving scenarios, like encounters with pedestrians, interactions with cyclists, roadway construction, traffic congestions, and more. This will enhance the reliability and responsiveness of the system, ensuring its scalability and introduction to the public in new markets.
“Argo is first to go driverless in two major American cities, safely operating amongst heavy traffic, pedestrians and bicyclists in the busiest of neighborhoods,” Bryan Salesky, Founder and CEO of Argo AI, has stated.
“From day one, we set out to tackle the hardest miles to drive — in multiple cities — because that’s where the density of customer demand is, and where our autonomy platform is developing the intelligence required to scale it into a sustainable business.”
The company is also gearing up to introduce an autonomous micro-transit and delivery service in collaboration with Volkswagen in Germany in 2025.
Argo is not the only autonomous technology company to routinely test its robotaxis without a human minder behind the wheel, as Waymo, Cruise, and Motional have embarked in similar endeavors aiming for full autonomy on the road.
After spending a few years as a copy editor, Ancuta decided to put down the eraser and pick up the writer's pencil. Her favorites subjects are unusual car designs, travel trailers and everything related to the great outdoors. Full profile
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