Developers of self-driving cars for Ford and Volkswagen set up a company for unmanned cargo transportation Stack
The founders of the former self-driving car division of Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG are launching a new autonomous cargo transportation startup with the support of Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. for more than $1 billion.
Bloomberg reports.
The new firm, called Stack AV, is headed by Brian Saleski, Pete Rander, and Brett Browning, who previously ran Argo AI, a self-driving car company that Ford and VW closed last year. Stack AV, based in Pittsburgh, where Argo was also founded, has hired 150 employees and already has a test fleet of trucks on the road, the publication writes.
While company and SoftBank representatives declined to elaborate on the investment in Stack, Matt Smith, Pittsburgh’s economic development official, said he expects the investment to be “more than $1 billion.”
Ford and VW lost patience with Argo after investing $3.6 billion in the startup and shut it down last year as sentiment toward self-driving technology deteriorated. One of Ford’s executives said at the time that it was easier to land a man on the moon than to create a fully self-driving car on the road. Last year, SoftBank also exited its investment in AV company Cruise LLC, selling its stake for $2.1 billion to the startup’s parent company, General Motors Co.
