Argo AI is a stealth self-driving startup out of Pittsburgh 
 
 The deal effectively means Ford is buying Argo and taking a majority stake in the company, though Ford is framing the deal as an investment instead of an acquisition. Based in Silicon Valley, Argo AI will operate with substantial independence 
 
 From left: Peter Rander, Argo AI COO; Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO; Bryan Salesky, Argo AI CEO; and Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president, Product Development, and chief technical officer. Further Reading Q&A: Ford’s futurist knows kids today see status in their smartphones, not cars "The next decade will be defined by the automation of the automobile, and autonomous vehicles will have as significant an impact on society as Ford's moving assembly line did 100 years ago," said Ford president and CEO Mark Fields. The company, which has operated in secret out of its Pittsburgh headquarters for months, was founded by Bryan Salesky, a multi-year veteran of Google’s self-driving team, and Peter Rander, who led autonomous efforts at Uber up until September 2016. Argo AI, which is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., will have offices in Michigan and California and expects to have 200 employees by the end of this year. Further Reading Video: Find out how technology is changing Ford with its CTO, Raj Nair And some of Ford's current employees working on the software side of the company will be moved over to Argo AI (enabling them to benefit from the equity offer), although those working on the hardware and vehicle design side of things will remain with Ford.
– Ford has made another big bet on the future of self-driving cars, investing $1 billion in previously unknown startup Argo AI. "The next decade will be defined by the automation of the automobile," Ford CEO Mark Fields said in a statement, per Ars Technica, predicting that self-driving technology will change the world as much as the Ford assembly line did a century ago. The investment buys a lot of self-driving know-how for Ford: Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky worked on Google's self-driving car program for years, while co-founder Peter Rander spent years with Uber's program, CNN reports. Ford is now the majority stakeholder in the startup and Fields says that while it is now a subsidiary "from an accounting standpoint," Argo will be given a lot of independence. Equity in the firm will be offered to tempt engineers away from other companies, the Verge reports. Salesky tells the Detroit Free Press that they spoke to several possible partners and decided they were most impressed by Ford's vision for self-driving vehicles. "When we talked to others, it was very clear that Ford was one of the few manufacturers that really understands the full ecosystem that needs to come together for self-driving cars," he says.