Ford, Argo AI to deploy autonomous vehicles on Lyft network

DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. and a self-driving vehicle company it partly owns will join with the Lyft ride-hailing service to offer autonomous rides on the Lyft network. The service using Ford vehicles and a driving system developed by Argo AI will begin in Miami later this year and start in Austin, Texas, in 2022. The companies say it will begin with human backup drivers and go fully autonomous on an unspecified date.  The vehicles will gather data to lay the groundwork to deploy 1,000 Ford robotaxis on the Lyft network in multiple markets in the next five years, the companies said in a statement.