Benzinga - Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) withdrew its petition to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requesting exemptions to deploy a self-driving vehicle.
What Happened: Ford wrote to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration withdrawing its petition for temporary exemptions to deploy an automated driving system-equipped vehicle. The letter, though dated Feb. 13, was made public by NHTSA on Thursday.
In July 2021, Ford requested NHTSA for a two-year exemption from various requirements of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards to deploy its Level-4 automated driving system feature-equipped vehicle.
“As evidenced by the planned shutdown of our ADS partner Argo AI, we believe the road to fully autonomous vehicles, at scale, with a profitable business model, will be a long one,” Ford wrote.
The automaker will instead focus on nearer-term Level-2 and Level 3 automation technologies which do not require exemptions. However, Ford remains optimistic about the future of ADS technology, the letter added.
Argo AI was a start-up backed by Ford and Volkswagen AG (OTCPK: VWAGY) dedicated to developing autonomous driving tech. It was launched in 2016 with a $1 billion investment from Ford. However, the company shut it down in October after mounting losses. In the third quarter, Ford’s $827 million in losses were led by costs associated with Argo AI.
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