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Ford and Argo AI kick off charitable food delivery pilot in Miami


In partnership with The Education Fund, a collection of nonprofits working in U.S. and around the world to help improve the quality of education, Ford and Pittsburgh-based autonomous car startup Argo AI say they’ve teamed up to make contactless deliveries in Ford’s Fusion Hybrid self-driving test vehicles. The launch of the pilot, which is taking place in Miami, comes as Ford continues to build out a service in Miami-Dade County for autonomous ride-hailing and goods delivery.

Some experts predict the coronavirus outbreak will hasten the adoption of driverless vehicles for delivery. A study published by CarGurus found that 39% of people won’t use manually driven ride-sharing services post-pandemic for fear of insufficient sanitation. Despite the public’s misgivings about driverless cars and their need for regular disinfection, they promise to minimize the risk of spreading disease because they inherently limit driver-rider contact.

Ford says that over an eight-week period, it and Argo will make weekly contactless deliveries of groceries and school supplies furnished by The Education Fund’s Food Forests for Schools program to the families of approximately 50 students attending Feinberg Fisher K-8 in Miami Beach and Riverside Elementary School in Little Havana. After the Ford and Argo team collects the bags at each school, the deliveries are made in Ford’s self-driving Ford Fusions with two test specialists.

Argo AI Ford Miami

“With each delivery we complete through this pilot, we gain a deeper understanding about how our self-driving services can help organizations and businesses fulfill delivery orders in a safe, reliable, and trusted manner,” Kumar wrote in a blog post. “This is the first time we’ve integrated the self-driving capabilities from Argo with our customer facing partnerships. This is giving us meaningful real-world insights into what is required to run an efficient business.”

Ford says that based on the success of the pilot, it’ll continue to expand and refine its moving goods business with similar pilots in 2021.

Argo AI Ford Miami

Ford pushed the unveiling of its driverless service from 2021 to 2022 earlier this year, but it’s business as usual at Argo, which has over 1,000 employees and a $7.25 billion valuation. Beyond Ford, Argo has close ties with Volkswagen, and it’s testing in cities around the U.S., including Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, and Austin.

Ford is only the latest to repurpose its self-driving fleet for charitable deliveries during the pandemic. Some, like Waymo and Cruise, have received pushback from drivers who say they’re being forced to work in dangerous conditions. According to The Verge, Waymo drivers were recently told to drive in suffocating ash from wildfires and after COVID-19 infection rates reached new peaks.



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