Is it just me or did they borrow the Fedora logo?
The parallel bars are longer than Fedora. Definitely inspired by it tho.
Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
91–100 of 135 posts
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#92Not mentioned here, but in this Techcrunch article, is Ford’s expensive flip-flopping on AV: https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/02/ford-forms-automated-drivi... > Argo AI burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment from Ford — and Iater an investment from VW. The startup shuttered suddenly in October 2022 after Ford and VW determined they would no longer pursue AV technology, at least not under the Ar…
Wait, so they killed the 550 person AV startup they were funding, took 2.7B loss, and 4 months later hired those same 550 people to resume the same work? Something looks seriously wrong here.
Argo had enough history that the cap table was probably very messy after years of funding rounds, investments from Europe, employee option grants... A buyout by Ford would have triggered all sorts of exit clauses.
With this maneuver, Ford gets the essential part of the company, and also gets to write off 2.7B of goodwill from their books which is all tax deductible. What's not to like.
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, so they killed the 550 person AV startup they were funding, took 2.7B loss, and 4 months later hired those same 550 people to resume the same work? Something looks seriously wrong here.
I’ve seen this happen at a big corp. One group of leaders decides to kill a product, takes the first steps, then the other group of leaders overrules them and restores the efforts. This can be driven by a pressure from the clients or partners, etc. Think of it as a rollback of a buggy release.
It doesn't even need to be a big corp. At some point, within a product group I was working with, two factions developed, one of which was championing technology X (which the product was already using), and another championing the idea of moving to technology Y. The messaging out of the product group seemed schizophrenic -- one time they's say, "We're moving to technology Y soon", and another time they'd say "No, we're going to stick with technology X". But the reality was that the factions never changed their minds -- the overall messaging from the team just depended on which faction had the upper hand at that point in time. We're probably talking about 20 people total, including the partisans and the other engineers / management that were getting dragged one way or the other.
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the difference in keeping the same 550 people working under the old name with a $2.7bn cost sunk into it, and just acknowledging the $2.7bn as a loss and moving the 550 people to work under a different name. It's not like the name was a significant part of their product and they'd now have to spend a similar amount to get to a similar stage in their research and development, is it?
Firing them hiring is a long way from free. Then add in the company start up costs and legal fees etc. Maybe I’m the mug, but that seems wasted money. When you are burning billions, the costs listed above seem to be treated as a rounding error.
It means they now have 100% ownership instead of whatever legacy rights were there from their previous investment.
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#95Not mentioned here, but in this Techcrunch article, is Ford’s expensive flip-flopping on AV: https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/02/ford-forms-automated-drivi... > Argo AI burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment from Ford — and Iater an investment from VW. The startup shuttered suddenly in October 2022 after Ford and VW determined they would no longer pursue AV technology, at least not under the Ar…
AV means autonomous vehicle. Please define your terms.
AV means audiovisual - to me at least.
I read it all the comments in that context and it pretty much made sense.
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#96The name is a little bit unfortunate. There's already a company in the AI space called Latitude: https://latitude.io
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lane keep is not the same as lane centering. I have a 2020 Palisade with lane centering. It works incredibly well. I've driven through Chicago highways with only management for lane changes. I literally will not buy a car without lane centering after having this car.
> Lane keep is not the same as lane centering These are God awful naming schemes, completely misleading for the common consumer and bizantine in naming. Near purposefully misleading
Summary of the 3 different types (LKA, LCA, and LDW), and what each manufacturer called them last year:
- https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/lane-departure-wa...
The US NHTSA specifies the names here:
- L*A: https://www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/driver-assistance-technologi...
- LDW: https://www.nhtsa.gov/equipment/driver-assistance-technologi...
W = Warning, A = Assist
(Curious what names are used outside the US)
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#98Not mentioned here, but in this Techcrunch article, is Ford’s expensive flip-flopping on AV: https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/02/ford-forms-automated-drivi... > Argo AI burst on the scene in 2017 stacked with a $1 billion investment from Ford — and Iater an investment from VW. The startup shuttered suddenly in October 2022 after Ford and VW determined they would no longer pursue AV technology, at least not under the Ar…
Wait, so they killed the 550 person AV startup they were funding, took 2.7B loss, and 4 months later hired those same 550 people to resume the same work? Something looks seriously wrong here.
> they killed the 550 person AV startup
Argo’s website says they had 2000+ employees. So this new subsidiary is 1/4 the size.
https://web.archive.org/web/20230119113422/https://www.argo....
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd be happy if they'd just make a drop-in replacement EV for my existing ICE options. I don't need it to be a robot. I just want it to not use gasoline. Unfortunately, manufactures seem to think it has to be all or nothing.
The gm bolt is what you want.
Except it's a GM
Re: Ford Hires 550 Former Argo.ai Engineers, Creates Latitude.ai
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt they can buy VW. The German government has an interest and Porsche most of the rest.
Porsche is the majority shareholder in VW and VW itself owns 75% of Porsche (100% before the IPO)
Wait, what?! How can you have cycles in an ownership graph?
Ah, answering my own question, it seems to be called "circular ownership" and while it can sometimes occur from a long history of mergers and acquisitions (Samsung seems to be such a case), its generally a tax dodge or to mask ownership? At least, the top hits I see are all talking about it as a classic way to obscure oligarch ownership and things.
Genuinely curious who actually gets to make the decisions.