Ford in talks with multiple rivals to secure 'billions of dollars' to develop driverless cars

Ford has been meeting with multiple rival carmakers to try to secure “billions of dollars” to fund the development of its own driverless cars, one of its executives has said. 

The US car giant, which invested $1bn (£780m) in its self-driving car unit Argo AI last year, revealed that it is approaching a “broad” number of competitors for further investment, according to reports.

Bryan Salesky, Argo AI’s chief executive, told The Financial Times: “We are definitely talking to other potential customers, OEMs [original equipment manufacturers which make parts for cars]. We are talking to more than one.”

This comes after reports that German carmaker Volkswagen is considering investing $1bn in Argo AI, which Mr Salesky said was “not enough” to continue developing Ford’s driverless cars.

He said that Argo AI, which is based in Pittsburgh, is seeking funding “in the billions” to complete its ambitions to develop artificial intelligence technology for use in Ford’s driverless cars, but did not confirm whether Volkswagen was contributing funds.    

Mr Salesky made the remarks at an event in Miami, where the US carmaker is piloting self-driving cars on the roads.

This follows Sherif Marakby, the head of Ford’s driverless car business division, revealing that he would work with a competitor to launch the autonomous car service outside of the US. Mr Marakby, chief executive of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, told The Financial Times that collaborating with rivals and sharing technology “makes total sense”.