text/Zhang Qian
Autonomous driving is in an unprecedented trough, and even as an unicorn company cannot escape the fate of being "abandoned".
According to Forbes on October 27, Ford announced on Wednesday that the development of automobile autonomous driving technology Argo AI will be closed and disbanded. Its employees and some parts will be accepted by Ford Motor Company and Volkswagen Company , respectively.
also showed that according to Ford Auto 's third-quarter financial report, its net loss in the third quarter reached US$827 million. Ford blamed it on Argo AI, saying that this was because corporate investment in Argo AI recorded a non-cash pre-tax impairment of $2.7 billion.
It is worth noting that Ford said in a statement that the company needs to invest in driving assistance technologies that are easier to achieve in the short term, rather than Argo's fully autonomous driving goal. Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume also said in a statement: "Especially in the development of future technologies, focus and speed are crucial. Our goal is to provide customers with the most powerful functions in the shortest possible time and make our development as cost-effective as possible."
It is not difficult to see from the collapse of Argo and the change in attitudes of corporate executives that the commercialization under the technology bottleneck has become the primary shackle that shackles the current constraints on autonomous driving. In the face of weak profitability, even as an industry giant, it is difficult to turn things around.
is backed by Ford and Volkswagen, with a valuation of up to 7 billion
Argo AI was founded by Bryan Salesky and Pete Rander in 2016, and its headquarters is located in Pittsburgh . Its founder team was the top leader of Uber's first generation self-driving prototype car project and the hardware research and development experts of Google unmanned vehicles. It was a gathering of talents, bringing many imaginations about future technological prospects to the automotive industry at that time.
As the new generation of hot spots, Argo AI quickly attracted the attention of capital. In the second year of the company's establishment, Ford announced an investment of "a total of US$1 billion in five years". Since then, Argo AI has fully served the development of Ford's autonomous driving technology, focusing on providing L4-level autonomous driving system , and plans to provide shared travel and cargo delivery services in densely populated cities. This sky-high investment from Ford quickly set off a wave of entrepreneurial gold-mining in the field of autonomous driving.
In 2019, Argo once again announced that it would sign new cooperation with Ford and Volkswagen, and Volkswagen also actively provided it with strong support, raising more than US$2.6 billion in "blood transfusion". According to information on the official website of Argo AI, of the US$2.6 billion invested by Volkswagen in Argo AI, US$1 billion is cash investment, and the remaining US$1.6 billion is to incorporate Volkswagen's autonomous driving technology company AID, which is worth 1.6 billion yuan, into Argo AI. After the transaction is completed, Argo AI will obtain related technologies from AID companies in Munich.
In other words, the company has received at least US$3.6 billion in investment within three years of its establishment. At that time, the investment trend in the autonomous vehicle industry was booming. Argo AI's market value once reached US$7 billion at its peak, and its team size exceeded 2,000 people.
commercial landing is far away, and the industry is in decline and it is difficult to sustain its life. According to the initial expectations, Argo AI should have been responsible for developing, testing and ultimately commercializing its autonomous driving system with the support of two leading automakers, Ford and Volkswagen. But reality is not as beautiful as ideal. The money-burning speed of autonomous driving is far beyond Ford and Volkswagen's imagination. Even though Argo AI strives to speed up the commercialization process and has made a series of technological progress, the dream of autonomous driving of investors is still out of reach.
In desperation, Ford and Volkswagen gradually realized the reality and began to adopt a "contraction" strategy, that is, no longer pursuing the unattainable L4 technology, and even gradually gave up the path of "self-development" that cannot see the end.
Volkswagen has previously stated that it will no longer increase its investment in ArgoAI, and will promote the creation of intelligent driving systems through cooperation. Ford founder Jim Farley also said that Ford's current top priority is to create excellent L2+ and L3 systems to enhance the competitiveness of smart car .
On the other hand, the autonomous driving industry is experiencing an unprecedented reshuffle, and the tide of old-fashioned enterprises is inevitable. Among them, there are problems such as stock prices falling to 10% off, large-scale recalls of vehicles, and stagnation of technological progress. As the capital market bubble dissipates, many of the once energetic autonomous driving unicorns are struggling on the verge of delisting.
It is understood that Crunchbase, a US enterprise service data company, has tracked 14 companies with self-driving car-related technologies that have been listed in recent years, and found that the average decline of these companies after listing exceeded 80%. The worst performers include self-driving truck developer Embark, LiDAR technology company Velodyne Lidar and Quanergy, which have fallen by more than 95% or more. What's more, the stock price fell by more than 97% from the initial price within one year, and it was deeply in a delisting crisis.
The industry is in a tide, and it is clear who is swimming naked at a glance. This also indirectly proves that most investors have not practiced value investment and are blindly betting on future potential under the leadership of technology. What's even more fatal is that as the invested self-driving companies, they generally lack the ability to produce blood independently. Once they lose their support, they can only enter the ending of falling into the abyss. Argo AI is one of them, and today's ending is also destined.
2015-2016 is the golden age of the development of autonomous driving. The capital market has unlimited imagination about this "technology that changes human travel", so it is willing to spend a lot of money on it. What is different from the past is that the fragile economic environment will only make investors more cautious in their actions, and the label of autonomous "money crusher" also implies an ending with minimal results. As a celebrity listed company, Argo AI is still the case, and other companies will have to survive the industry's cold winter.
