INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ford Motor plans to spend $4 billion through 2023 in a newly created LLC dedicated to building out an autonomous vehicles business.
The
automaker announced Tuesday it has created Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, which will house the company self-driving systems integration,
autonomous-vehicle research and advanced engineering, AV transportation-as-a-service network development, user experience, business strategy
and business development teams
The $4 billion spending planincludes a $1 billion investment in startup Argo AI .
The new LLC will be primarily based at Ford Corktown
campus in Detroit and will hold Ford ownership stake in Argo AI, the company Pittsburgh-based partner for self-driving system
development.
Sherif Marakby, who heads up Ford autonomous vehicles and electrification division, has been appointed CEO of Ford Autonomous
He&ll report to a board of directors chaired byMarcy Klevorn, Ford executive vice president and president of mobility, a larger department
that also houses Ford Smart Mobility LLC.
The investment in Argo AI — the startup launched by former Google self-driving project veteran
Bryan Salesky andPeter Rander, who was the engineering lead at the Uber Advanced Technologies Group — has been public since the deal was
first announced in February 2017.
But the total planned spend of $4 billion has not.The investment figure, and Ford decision to create a new
organization dedicated to all things autonomous vehicles, provides some clues to the automaker ultimate ambitions
Ford work on autonomous vehicles was scattered throughout the company, from product development and research departments to its marketing
and planning organizations.
Its decision to bring all of these various pieces together suggests the company is evolving from research and
testing toward an autonomous vehicle business
In short, it sees a path toward commercial deployment.
&Ford has made tremendous progress across the self driving value chain — from
technology development to business model innovation to user experience,& said Ford CEO Jim Hackett
&Now is the right time to consolidate our autonomous driving platform into one team to best position the business for the opportunities
ahead.&
In June,Ford laid out a plan to spend the next four yearstransforming at least 1.2 million square feet of space in Corktown —
Detroit oldest neighborhood — into a hub for its electric and autonomous vehicles businesses.
Ford plans to house 2,500 Ford employees,
most from its emerging mobility team, in its new Corktown campus by 2022
The new campus will have space to accommodate 2,500 additional employees of partners and other businesses
The remaining 300,000 square feet will serve as a mix of community and retail space and residential housing.
