Ford just invested $1 billion in a secretive AI startup founded by former Google and Uber execs (F)

Ford is investing $1 billion in a secretive artificial intelligence startup headed by former Google and Uber execs to advance its self-driving car efforts.

The startup, Argo AI, was founded by Bryan Salesky, the former director of hardware for Google’s self-driving-car efforts, and Peter Rander, Uber’s engineering lead at its autonomous cars center.

The $1 billion investment will be spread out over five years as Ford looks to commercialize its self-driving technology by 2021.

Argo AI will leverage roboticists and engineers from inside and outside of Ford to develop a virtual driver system for the autonomous vehicles in 2021, Ford wrote in a press release. The virtual driver system will use machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence that improves with experience, to act as the brain of Ford’s self-driving cars.

Ford is facing increasing pressure from Waymo, the self-driving-car company operating under Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Uber.

Fiat Chrysler has supplied Waymo with 100 Pacifica minivans equipped with Waymo’s self-driving-car hardware as part of the two companies’ partnership. The minivans are currently being tested on public roads in Arizona and California. There are reports that Fiat Chrysler and Waymo could launch a self-driving taxi service by the end of 2017.

Waymo’s self-driving-car software is considered among the most sophisticated out there. Waymo’s cars have driven over 2 million miles, amounting to 300 years of human driving experience.

Uber has launched pilot programs for its self-driving cars in Pittsburgh and Arizona. The ride-hailing service is also partnering with Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. Daimler will supply its self-driving cars to run on Uber’s network.