Ford-Backed Argo AI Begins Driverless Taxi Operations, & Why This Is Big News

Ford-backed autonomous vehicle company Argo AI recently started driverless vehicle operations in both Miami, Florida, and Austin, Texas, during daylight hours. "Argo is first to go driverless in two major American cities, safely operating amongst heavy traffic, pedestrians and bicyclists in the busiest of neighborhoods," said Bryan Salesky, Founder and CEO of Argo AI. "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." Here's a video Argo made about their new operations (article continues below): It took the company five years to get to the point where they could trust their vehicles to operate in busy traffic in these cities (two of eight cities they're now developing autonomous vehicles in). Driverless operations include multiple customer-facing operations, including work with several different commercial partners. For example, Argo has been working with Lyft to find riders in test vehicles since last year instead of offering their own rideshare platform and software.