Rita McGrath, Management Expert at Columbia Business School: Argo AI's Closure Signals Autonomous Cars Still Long Away
Rita McGrath
Rita McGrath Group
Blickfield - Automation Levels
Argo AI has shut down after being unable to find backers for their driver assist technology.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA, November 8, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Autonomous driving technology has become a holy grail for automotive manufacturers. Who wouldn’t want to conveniently signal their car to come pick them up at the mall entrance after a long day of shopping? Auto makers know that could be a major selling point for their products.
The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) defines the different levels of automation:
Level 0 - No Automation
Level 1 - Driver Assistance
Level 2 - Partial Automation
Level 3 - Conditional Automation
Level 4 - High Automation
Level 5 - Full Automation
While current manufacturers have vehicles available sustaining level two to three capability, level four is proving to be a significant challenge. Argo AI was working toward that goal but with the end of support from Ford and Volkswagen, and no other investors in sight, they have closed their doors.
Ford and Volkswagen are taking what they learned from Argo AI in house and development will continue from there. That said, analysts are now saying that the availability of level four automation is not years away, but instead decades away.
Columbia Business School Management Expert Rita McGrath says:
“It’s a great story because it fits perfectly with my predictions of the pattern of an inflection point unfolding. First, massive hype and investment. Then disillusionment while a few survivors figure out the business model. Then a period of maturation in which we figure out what a business could be. The path to get there is through what I call a stepping stone approach, in which you find early markets that can profitably use the tech at its current level of development. After enough stepping stones are built, you’ll find a full-blown lurch into the post inflection point situation. Then we’ll completely forget the way the world used to be.”
While Argo AI has been dissolved and its technology (along with some of its people) has been swallowed up by its sponsors, the quest for truly autonomous transportation continues. Ford is continuing its development level 2/3 technology.
But, Argo AI was far from the only player in the automotive automation space. Oxbotica has been converting Ford Mondeos for testing of level four autonomy in Oxford, England. In a significant milestone, their prototypes will join traffic in three major cities in the UK as part of their Project Endeavor. Perhaps the most visible player, Tesla, is also hard at work to bring level four automation to market as well.
While Argo AI has failed, work toward meeting the challenge of fully autonomous vehicles will continue for decades to come.
For more on Rita McGrath’s insights and tools go to:
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