Argo AI, the The autonomous vehicle developer, backed by Ford and VW Group, this week unveiled an ecosystem of products and services designed to support commercial delivery and robotaxi operations.
Its products — a list that includes fleet management software, data analytics, high-resolution maps and cloud-based communication tools — stretch far beyond self-driving systems that let a human driver navigate city streets without a human behind the wheel.
And taken together, it sends a single message to companies: Argo is open for business.
Argo’s product line is extensive and is designed for robotaxi as well as last-mile and mid-mile delivery services. And while Argo didn’t say exactly which companies it’s targeting or has struck deals with, the company says it’s interested in the consumer packaged goods and healthcare industries.
“These systems need to be built the way they can be built,” Argo CTO and executive vice president of product development Brett Browning said in a recent interview. Can I? How do I plug in? How do I solve my business needs?”
In the year It’s no secret that Argo, founded in 2016 by Brian Saleski and Pete Rander, has been building and testing automated driving systems.
The company’s self-driving Ford Fusion vehicles and now Ford Escape Hybrids can be seen being tested on public roads in Austin, Detroit, Miami, Palo Alto and Pittsburgh. In the EU, Argo uses the all-electric Volkswagen ID Buzz for its test programs in Hamburg and Munich. Argo has several pilot programs underway in Austin, Miami and Pittsburgh with Lyft, Walmart and 412 Food Rescue.
What’s not clear yet is what other analyst carrots to offer to convert those pilots into long-term customers or attract new ones.
Argo’s central product, as one might expect, is a self-driving system that combines back-end software and hardware called a hub that supports its own lidar sensor, high-resolution maps, and AVs when out in the field. They will return.
The hub, a collection of APIs and web tools, allows a fleet operator or company to run a checklist to make sure everything is working on an AV before deploying it on public roads. And it can. Send real-time updates to the vehicle about changes in road conditions or provide remote guidance or AV troubleshooting if assistance is needed.
“On the service operations side, people have a lot of existing tools that know when a tire needs to be changed,” Browning said. “But what about the more complex things that happen in self-driving systems? Do they have things that plug into that? How do they know, occasionally, these vehicles need to be fixed?”
Image Credits: Argo AI
Argo has developed some tools specifically aimed at delivering services, such as operations and fleet management software.
The gateway to all of these products, whether a company uses some or all of them, is a device the company calls ArgoConnect. This is a set of application programming interfaces (or APIs) that businesses can add to their existing operations software. For example, Lyft could plug Connect into its Ride-Hole app so it can choose when and where it wants to send autonomous vehicles across its network. Or a restaurant delivery business could add Connect to its existing software to send a driverless delivery vehicle when needed.
These products and services are designed to work together. However, depending on a company’s needs, there are a few a la carte options, Browning said.
Demonstrations to business
In the early days of AV development — between 2013 and 2018, when startups were springing up like mushrooms after the rain — most of the energy was spent on proving that the vehicle could successfully drive itself around a closed course, and then on the public. ways.
These AV displays, either in person or via video, were common. Less mentioned were all the required back-end pieces that could force a self-driving system for an e-commerce, logistics, retailer or ride-hailing company.
As a few companies focus on how to make money from autonomous vehicle technology, companies that survive and grow after a while are changing. With 2,000-plus employees, Argo (and many other similarly sized AV companies) can only survive in the dreaded pre-revenue (or co-revenue) category. And while Argo has commercial partnerships with Lyft and Walmart — meaning it earns revenue for its services — it’s looking to scale up.
The company’s official introduction of the product line shows its ambition to develop a diverse clientele beyond its two big name sponsors, Ford and VW.
Some customers may want the entire product suite – all of which are used on the Argo 150 vehicle fleet today. Others, Browning argued, may not need certain tools. For example, he added, Ford and VW may not need vehicle repair tools but may need the data component.
“At some point there may be a company that wants Argo to do the same work we do today for development ships,” he said. “And great, we could go and do that. The point is to enable us to do any of these flexibly.
