Aurora CEO Chris Urmson weighs in on Argo AI shutdown

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Ford and VW introduced this week that the businesses could be ending their funding in Argo AI, a self-driving firm with partnerships with Lyft and Walmart, and that the corporate could be shutting its doorways.

A few of Argo AI’s round 2,000 workers would both be receiving presents from Ford, whose president and CEO mentioned the corporate anticipated to make a number of hundred presents, or VW. The remaining could be let go and obtain severance packages that embody insurance coverage and two separate bonuses. 

Chris Urmson, the co-founder and CEO of Aurora, a self-driving firm that has partnerships with Toyota and Uber, shared a word to Aurora’s publication in regards to the current information. 

Urmson’s whole word could be learn beneath. 

Sorry to interrupt your commonly scheduled programming, however main information was introduced within the self-driving business yesterday and I needed to share my perspective.

Argo is shutting down.

First, my ideas are with Bryan Salesky and your entire Argo group—this business is small, everyone knows one another effectively, and many people right here at Aurora have labored with the Argo group, watched them develop, and seen the influence they’ve made. It’s disappointing, and it’s unlucky, and their absence will likely be felt in Pittsburgh and within the bigger AV business.

However I additionally need to be clear that this isn’t a sign {that a} future with self-driving know-how isn’t actual or imminent. In reality, it’s fairly the other. Waymo just lately introduced the enlargement of their robotaxi fleet to LA. Cruise is charging for his or her driverless robotaxi rides in San Francisco.

And as for us? We’ve lengthy believed that long-haul trucking is the easiest way to enter the market, and that will probably be the primary vertical throughout the autonomous automobile business to generate important income, in order that has been our focus.

We’re making autonomous freight deliveries every single day for pilot prospects like FedEx, Werner, Schneider, and Uber Freight. In reality, for those who obtained a FedEx parcel that obtained shipped from Houston, there’s an opportunity that it sat in one in every of our vans on the way in which to you.

Now we have shut, collaborative partnerships with PACCAR and Volvo Vans (which collectively produce nearly 50% of all Class 8 vans in the US) and with main transportation leaders like Toyota and Uber. These corporations see the long-term worth of autonomous autos, and our independence provides them the power to put money into it with out shouldering the price of creating this know-how alone.
Lastly, we’ve got a transparent path, plan, and timeline to market.

I’ve been on this business for almost twenty years, and on this second, proper now, I imagine we’ve got by no means been nearer to delivering self-driving autos to the world. Extra importantly, this know-how has by no means been wanted extra. Over 40,000 individuals died in automobile crashes final 12 months, up 10% from the earlier 12 months. Trucking is an over $700B enterprise, shifting over 72% of the nation’s freight by weight, however we simply don’t have sufficient drivers to maneuver all of it. It’s additionally harmful – there are nearly half 1,000,000 accidents involving vans a 12 months. Self-driving know-how just isn’t a science challenge. It is likely one of the subsequent main technological improvements that may rework our society—for the higher—and we’re making constant, regular, and thrilling progress in the direction of getting there.

So, with that, I flip you again to The Dashboard and to some significant updates from the final month—together with extra element about how our autonomous trucking service Aurora Horizon will work for purchasers once we launch and the way we prepare the Aurora Driver to soundly reply to pedestrians.

Oh, and another factor. We’re hiring! Now we have over 160 positions obtainable throughout the nation, and we want a group with the experience, dedication, and keenness for taking over this once-in-a-generation alternative head-on. If that sounds such as you and also you need to be on the group that will get this know-how on our roads and transforms transportation, please come be part of us.

—Chris Urmson, CEO, Aurora