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DETROIT (Reuters) -Ford Motor Co on Wednesday reported a third-quarter net loss driven by its decision to shift spending from the Argo AI self-driving business.
Ford posted a net loss of $827 million, after taking a $2.7 billion noncash pretax impairment on its investment in Argo AI.
The automaker said Argo will be “wound down” and that “talented engineers” will be offered positions with Ford.
The other key investor in Pittsburgh-based Argo, Volkswagen AG (OTC:VWAGY), said it, too, expects to hire some personnel from Argo.
Chief Executive Jim Farley on Wednesday said Ford will shift its development focus away from fully self-driving vehicles to advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that are partially automated but still require humans to stay engaged when a vehicle is moving.
“Profitable, fully autonomous vehicles at scale are a long way off and we won’t necessarily have to create that technology ourselves,” Farley said in a statement.
The U.S. automaker said third-quarter revenue jumped to $39.4 billion, up 10% from a year ago, while adjusted operating profit was $1.8 billion.
Ford said it expects full-year adjusted earnings before interest and taxes to rise to about $11.5 billion, up around 15% from a year ago.
Adjusted free cash flow in the quarter was $3.6 billion, with the outlook for the full year raised to $9.5 billion to $10 billion.
