Ford Adds Laser Maker to Driverless-Car Effort -- WSJ
October 28 2017 - 3:02AM
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This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (October 28, 2017).
By Tim Higgins
Argo AI LLC, a driverless-car developer controlled by Ford Motor
Co., has purchased a 17-year-old company that makes laser systems
needed to operate cars without human intervention, an important
step for a conventional Detroit auto maker looking to boost its
role in shaping the industry's transformation.
Argo AI said Friday it is buying New Jersey-based Princeton
Lightwave Inc. for an undisclosed price, a move that provides Ford
with more immediate access to so-called lidar systems that use
lasers to create a 3-D view of the world. The move comes on the
heels of the purchase of a small lidar startup by General Motors
Co.'s Cruise Automation driverless car unit.
After spending decades farming out an increasing amount of work
to independent suppliers, major auto makers are taking a different
path when it comes to creating autonomous-driving systems. Lidar,
for instance, is a system that could come from a third-party
supplier that may not move at the speed that car companies
require.
"The component providers are not moving fast enough," Bryan
Salesky, Argo chief executive, said in an interview ahead of the
purchase announcement. "Because they're not moving fast enough we
feel like we need to take more of a lead role in getting the right
sensor out there."
Ford announced earlier this year it acquired control of
Pittsburg-based Argo AI, committing to $1 billion in investment.
The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker aims to have commercially viable
driverless cars by 2021, and Ford Chief Executive Jim Hackett has
said the company is studying the best way to deploy the technology.
On Thursday, Mr. Hackett suggested to analysts that a test
deployment in a market may occur next year.
Ford is racing against a long list of competitors in both the
auto and tech industries aiming to perfect driverless cars. Along
with GM, Toyota Motor Co., Volkswagen AG and Alphabet Inc. are
among those spending an increasing amount of resources and hiring
additional staff for the moonshot project.
Lidar is a uniquely-important component in helping auto makers
or tech firms meet their autonomous-vehicle targets. Many industry
have said it is difficult in finding a company to produce enough of
the devices.
Owning lidar development in-house could allow the Argo team to
work more closely to integrate its abilities into the autonomous
vehicle software. It is a path forged by Google-parent Alphabet's
self-driving unit Waymo, which claims to have lowered the cost of
its lidar by 90%.
The Cranbury, N.J.-based Princeton Lightwave, founded in 2000,
has more than 30 employees and already sells sensors to clients in
the telecom and defense industries. The company's website says its
lidar is capable of identifying objects at 350 meters, or nearly a
quarter of a mile, traveling at 60 miles an hour -- an impressive
distance for the technology.
"I'm not just buying an idea or some interesting [intellectual
property] that may or may not play out, I'm really getting a very
knowledgeable team that knows how to build these products," Mr.
Salesky said.
Dozens of companies are racing to develop lidar -- which stands
for light detection and ranging and works by bouncing lasers off
objects to create a 3-D view of the world -- but large-scale
production hasn't kicked in yet.
Velodyne LiDAR Inc. in January opened a new factory in San Jose,
Calif., to ramp up production with the aim of making more than 1
million sensors there next year.
Last year, Ford invested $75 million into Velodyne as part of an
investment aimed at lowering the cost of the sensors to between
$300 and $500 a unit. The first Velodyne sensor cost $75,000, too
much for mass production on cars. Velodyne remains essential to
Argo's development programs during the next few years, Mr. Salesky
said.
Write to Tim Higgins at tim.higgins@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 28, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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