Ford Is Investing $1 Billion in Startup Founded By Two Autonomous Car Pioneers

Ford Motor Co. is investing $1 billion in a months-old startup founded by two pioneers in the nascent autonomous vehicle sector. The Pittsburgh-based artificial intelligence company Argo AI will develop the brains -- specifically, a virtual driver system -- for the fully autonomous vehicles Ford has promised to bring to market in 2021. Founders Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander are former leaders of the self-driving car teams at Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Uber Technologies Inc. "This is a unique partnership," Mark Fields, Ford's chief executive officer, said in an interview. "A lot of tech companies are looking for customers and a lot of OEMs are looking for technology partners. We are getting expertise, and Argo AI is getting a customer in Ford." Salesky, who worked on the self-driving car project at Google, and Rander, who held a similar role at Uber, have no other backers.