Ford Motor Company has announced that it is investing $1.4 billion during the next five years in Argo AI - an artificial intelligence company - to develop a virtual driver system for the carmaker's autonomous vehicle coming in 2021; and for potential license to other companies.

Founded by former Google and Uber leaders, Argo AI is bringing together some of the most experienced roboticists and engineers working in autonomy from inside and outside of Ford. The team of experts in robotics and artificial intelligence is led by Argo AI founders Bryan Salesky, company Chief Executive Officer, and Peter Rander, company Chief Operating Officer. Both are alumni of Carnegie Mellon National Robotics Engineering Center and former leaders on the self-driving car teams of Google and Uber, respectively.

The current team developing Ford's virtual driver system - the machine-learning software that acts as the brain of autonomous vehicles - will be combined with the robotics talent and expertise of Argo AI. This innovative partnership will work to deliver the virtual driver system for Ford's SAE Level 4 self-driving vehicles. Ford will continue to lead on development of its purpose-built autonomous vehicle hardware platform, as well as on systems integration, manufacturing, exterior and interior design, and regulatory policy management.