Argo AI CEO on autonomous mobility outlook: 'it's about choice and freedom for us'

Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman, Myles Udland, and Brian Sozzi speak with Argo AI Founder & CEO, Bryan Salesky, about the company’s lidar technology and the overall electric vehicle space.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: All right, well, we've talked about a lot about changes in the self-driving technology space over the last year. We've talked specifically about the Lidar approach that some companies are taking. One company taking such a tactic is Argo AI. The company's CEO Bryan Salesky joins us now to talk about the introduction of their Argo Lidar technology. Bryan, thanks for joining the program today. So let's start with how you guys-- I guess, I would start with how would you describe what the company is working towards, how is it different than your competitors, and where you are today May of 2021.

BRYAN SALESKY: Good morning, Myles. Thanks for having us. Yeah, so we are announcing-- we announced last week the Argo Lidar, which is really the longest range Lidar sensor in the industry, which helps a self-driving car be able to see all around it 360 degrees around the car, way down the street hundreds of meters down to let you see pedestrians, cyclists, other vehicles, roadway infrastructure. The higher fidelity image that you can give the computer to be able to see its surroundings, the safer it'll be, the easier it is to be able to navigate really tough cities.

We are-- we're testing in six different cities what's called level four self-driving cars, which means that it doesn't need any human supervision. Once we deploy, it will be able to operate completely without any human in the driver's seat. And so you want to be able to give the software as high fidelity of an image as possible to be able to navigate these tough areas. We're in cities like Miami, Austin, DC. We're in the core of those cities where we're operating in and among some pretty challenging conditions. And, you know, we're just excited to be able to have this sensor in our fleet and really is opening up quite a bit of capability for us.

JULIE HYMAN: And the video watching, what it looks like from the car's perspective, is certainly fun to see. Bryan, you guys-- you know, you have about 1,200 employees is my understanding. The valuation now is around $7 billion. Where are you sort of in your revenue and profitability journey, if you will, in terms of selling the system to the automakers you partner with and seeing it in cars on the road?

BRYAN SALESKY: Yeah, so the way the business works is that our automakers are both customers and investors in us. And so we've been developing the technology together. It's really the tech has to work hand in hand with the vehicle. It needs to be integrated seamlessly into the controls and electronics on the car. And so, you know, we're at the-- we've been working on this for about 4 and 1/2 years.

But it's still-- I still call it the early days of deploying the technology. At the end of the day, we're doing a number of pilots. We're learning quite a bit about both goods movement and the ride hailing opportunity and how this technology can best be deployed for those business models. And so, we have gotten some very small amount of revenue from some of the pilots that we've done. But you're going to see us deploying toward the end of next year across both goods movement and ride hail opportunities.

BRIAN SOZZI: Bryan, that sounds very capital intensive. Any plans to go public this year?

BRYAN SALESKY: Well, we'll see. We're fundraising this summer. And we'll see what path that takes us. There's a number of great options out there. And going public is certainly the goal.

MYLES UDLAND: You know, Bryan, when you think broadly right now about the state of this self-driving technology and all the options that are out there, the things that are in vehicles today, the things that aren't, the things that people misunderstand as being in vehicles, you're looking at this every day. I'm a normal person who drives a regular Jeep with a normal ICE engine. Like, how long is it until I am thinking about an electric car that pretty much drives itself? And is that still the most common kind of problem that you guys are working on, whereas or am I as a consumer missing where the real opportunity is from your vantage point?

BRYAN SALESKY: So what I think is great is that we, along with the entire mobility industry and automotive industry, are offering a number of options now to customers. And in the coming years, customers will have more and more options, right? So if you have a daily commute with a predictable sort of number of miles that you drive, electric is a really great choice, right? If you like doing lots of cross-country trips, then maybe you should look at a nice vehicle.

If you don't like driving in really congested areas, then maybe you should use an autonomous mobility service that's powered by technology like Argos. I think that it's about choice and it's about freedom for us. We're driven also by the safety benefits of the technology. And look, people don't like driving in really congested areas. They don't like driving when they have other things they want to do, whether it be taking a phone call, doing email, et cetera.

And so, autonomous mobility has the potential to give people their time back. And I think that's what's most exciting is that you can choose the mode that makes the most sense for you. The early days of deploying this tech is going to be in shared fleets where you don't really own it, but you're able to use the service when you want to use it. And then if you want to own a car in order to take those longer trips or if you have-- if you need a pickup truck to be able to carry supplies for doing your weekend projects, right, you have the choice to be able to do that. We don't see any of this as a one size fits all kind of problem. It depends on the miles that you're driving and the miles that you're riding in.

JULIE HYMAN: So now we've got the bonus Pittsburgh video to add to the cool video earlier. I love it. Bryan, finally, I want to ask you about sort of education of drivers, right? Because I think we've had this disconnect where there was a big promise of this thing and consumers seem to think it was coming now, which we're not quite there yet. Do you think people, for example, should get special licenses if they're going to have some of this autonomous features in their car? What do you think needs to happen?

BRYAN SALESKY: Well, I think the first step is that as an industry, we need to figure out the terminology, right? And so, I think that we have this-- we have a number of driver assistance features going into cars today. And all of it helps-- if used correctly, it can help us be safer and more efficient drivers, can reduce the sort of load on your brain in terms of what you have to deal with, right? Adaptive cruise control, as simple as it is, is a great feature. And it's available in many cars.

But as we add more and more automation, we need to be very clear with the consumer about what it can and can't do and what the expectations are in terms of you being able to-- needing to pay attention. And there's really a pretty large dividing line that I tell everybody, right? On the one side, if it's a driver assistance feature, generally, you have to pay attention. You cannot zone out. You have to still monitor and supervise the car.

If it's a fully self-driving car where the manufacturers stated that you don't have to pay attention, first off, there really aren't any of those on the market yet. And most likely, you're going to be riding in one, not driving one, right? And those are the cases where, again, in the next couple of years, as we deploy technology like Argo or others, you'll have an opportunity to be in those types of vehicles, and you won't have to pay attention. But there's a big dividing line. And pretty much, if you're buying a car that has driver assistance features, you really do need to pay attention.

MYLES UDLAND: You know, Bryan, we have talked to a lot of self-driving folks over the last year. And your discussion of different options for different needs, that was one of the-- that's the first time we've heard that. And it's always great to get something that's truly different in the self-driving space. Exciting times for you guys. Looking forward to following your journey. Bryan Salesky is the founder and CEO at Argo AI. Bryan, thanks for jumping on it. I know we'll talk soon.

BRYAN SALESKY: Thank you.