Ford thinks driver assist is a safer bet than driverless cars, but it’s fooling itself

This update is just the beginning" for the driver assist system, Ford says. | Image: Ford

When Ford announced yesterday that it was pulling its support for Argo AI, the autonomous driving startup it had financed since 2017, it cited as one of its reasons a belief that driver-assist technology will have more near-term payoffs.

The automaker said it will be shifting its resources from the Level 4 autonomous technology that was under development at Argo to internally developed L2+/L3 technology."

So it's taking that investment and putting it towards a business where we think we will have a sizable return in the near term relative to one that's going to have a long arc," said John Lawler, Ford's chief financial officer, during a call with investors Wednesday.

So it's taking that investment and putting it towards a business...

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