- Ford is shifting its priorities away from developing fully autonomous cars.
- CEO Jim Farley said development of the vehicles at scale was "a long way off."
- The shift means that Ford is closing down Argo AI, a robo-taxi startup it jointly backed with VW.
Ford is putting the brakes on its efforts to develop fully autonomous self-driving cars.
"Profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off," CEO Jim Farley said in a statement published alongside the automaker's third-quarter earnings on Wednesday. While the company is optimistic that Level 4 advanced driver systems (ADAS) would be developed in the future, Farley said Ford "won't necessarily have to create that technology ourselves."
A vehicle with Level 4 ADAS capability is considered to be fully autonomous and can navigate most road situations without the need for human assistance. Automakers, namely Tesla, have been racing to develop the capability. However, it's yet to be achieved commercially.
Ford had originally intended to have achieved Level 4 ADAS by 2021, but Farley said that "things have changed."
The shift means that Ford will wind down Argo AI, a robo-taxi service the company jointly backed with European auto giant Volkswagen Group. Ford is writing off a pretax charge of $2.7 billion for its investment in the company.
Argo announced as recently as May that it was rolling out its ride-hailing network of autonomous taxis to two cities: Miami, Florida, and Austin, Texas.
"We're asking 'What's best for customers?' in everything we do," Farley said. The company will instead focus on its efforts on level 2 and 3 automation. "It's mission-critical for Ford to develop great and differentiated L2+ and L3 applications that at the same time make transportation even safer," Farley said.
Ford plans to hire some Argo AI engineers to work on its Level 2 — which includes its BlueCruise hands-free system and Lincoln ActiveGlide — and Level 3 efforts.
Ford did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further comment, which came outside of standard business hours.
Ford is the latest automaker to reveal its quarterly results. Despite posting revenues of $39.4 billion during the third quarter of 2022, the company made a net loss of $827 million, after taking a $2.7 billion non-cash pretax impairment on its investment in Argo AI.
