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Ford-Backed Argo Buys Lidar Firm

Ford Motor Co.’s Argo AI unit has acquired lidar specialist Princeton Lightwave Inc.

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Ford Motor Co.’s Argo AI unit has acquired lidar specialist Princeton Lightwave Inc.

Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky announced the deal on a blog post Friday. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Cranbury, N.J.-based Princeton Lightwave, was founded in 2000 as a spin-off from Sarnoff Corp. to commercialize high-output diode lasers for the telecom industry. The company has since switched its focus to lidar sensors, which it supplies to the defense industry and commercial mapping applications.

Ford and Argo say the acquisition will help enhance object detection for autonomous vehicles operating in poor weather. Last year Ford invested $75 million in Velodyne Lidar Inc., which is one of the early pioneers in automotive lidar systems.

In February Ford acquired control of Pittsburgh-based Argo with a $1 billion investment that will be spread out over five years. Argo, which is developing a “virtual driver system” for Ford, has grown from about two dozen employees to nearly 200 in the last year.

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