Ford is investing $1 billion in artificial intelligence (AI) company Argo over the next 5 years. Both companies will be working together to develop a virtual driver system for Ford’s autonomous vehicle planned for 2021.

Argo AI was founded by Bryan Salesky, company CEO, and Peter Rander, company COO, both former leaders on the self-driving car teams of Google and Uber, respectively. Argo AI brings together experienced roboticists and engineers working in autonomy from inside and outside of Ford.

Ford President and CEO Mark Fields said, “As Ford expands to be an auto and a mobility company, we believe that investing in Argo AI will create significant value for our shareholders by strengthening Ford’s leadership in bringing self-driving vehicles to market in the near term and by creating technology that could be licensed to others in the future.”

Ford’s current team is developing on a virtual driver system – a machine-learning software that acts as the brain of the self driving cars. This will be combined with robotics and artificial intelligence capabilities by Argo. Developments on this project, including systems integration, manufacturing, design, and regulatory policy management will be led by Ford.

“We are at an inflection point in using artificial intelligence in a wide range of applications, and the successful deployment of self-driving cars will fundamentally change how people and goods move,” said Salesky.

Ford intends to have a fully autonomous, SAE level 4-capable vehicle for commercial application in mobility services in 2021. As of now, Ford will be the majority stakeholder in Argo; however, it is noted that Argo will continue to operate independently.