Argo AI, a Ford-backed autonomous vehicle firm, fires 150 workers

Argo AI, a self-driving car start-up jointly funded by Ford and Volkswagen, has laid off around 150 workers, as previously reported by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. The company's expansion is intended to balance a period of rapid growth when it employed more people than required.

"With amazing advancement and success made in our mission to deploy driverless cars, we are making prudent changes to our business plan to continue on a path for success," Argo AI said in an emailed statement obtained by Bloomberg. The Verge reached out to Argo AI with a request for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

According to the WSJ, the job cuts account for roughly 6% of Argo AI's 2,000-person staff. Bryan Salesky, the former head of Google's autonomous vehicles (AVs) hardware development, and Peter Rander, who previously worked as an engineering lead for Uber's self-driving branch, founded Argo AI in 2016. In 2017, Ford invested $1 billion in the firm and Volkswagen followed up with a $2.6 billion investment in 2020.

“Argo is a crucial partner in our self-driving service, and we will continue to support them as they develop the self-driving technology that will power our self-driving service,” Ford spokesman Bradley Carroll said in an email to The Verge.

The amount of the grant has allowed Argo AI to expand its AV business in several US cities as well as overseas. Argo AI is currently testing fully autonomous vehicles in Miami and Austin, with plans to collaborate with Lyft both cities. It's also partnering with Walmart to offer a driverless delivery service in Miami, Austin, and Washington, D.C., and aiming to launch an automated ridesharing service with Volkswagen in Germany by 2025.