An autonomous vehicle technology company that partners with Ford and Volkswagen says it has started driverless operations in two of eight cities where it is developing its technology.
Pittsburgh-based Argo AI has pulled drivers from its autonomous cars in Miami and Austin, though it is still in the testing phase. Its commercial partnerships with Walmart and Lyft still have backup drivers in both cities. General Motors and its autonomous vehicle subsidiary Cruise is running in San Francisco and Alphabet's Waymo has also gone driverless there.
San Diego company TuSimple completed an 80-mile route in Arizona late last year without human intervention.
Big news alert: We’re driverless in Miami & Austin!
— Argo AI (@argoai) May 17, 2022
From day one, we set out to tackle the hardest miles to drive & this milestone demonstrates our ability to scale an autonomy business in multiple cities where demand is highest. More: https://t.co/LtayIpEIch pic.twitter.com/ihw6bmPLJv
Argo says it is the first company to go driverless in two American cities, according to the Associated Press. But Argo isn’t the first company to go driverless. Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has been testing a driverless ride service near Phoenix since 2020. The company announced in March it had begun carrying employees in electric Jaguar I-Pace SUVs in San Francisco without human backup drivers.
