LG Innotek acquires patents from defunct Argo AI

LG Innotek has acquired 77 patents in the US from the now defunct autonomous driving startup Argo AI, TheElec has learned.

Argo AI, which closed its business in October last year, was an autonomous driving startup that focused on lidar sensor technologies.

Lidar shoots beams of light and measures the time it takes for the light to bounce back to measure distances.

The sensor is used in autonomous driving and advanced driver assistance systems.

LG Innotek acquired 77 patents from Argo AI earlier this month.

The startup transferred 113 patents in the US to Ford Global Technologies in March as well.

The patents LG Innotek acquired include those for polarization filtering in lidar systems.

The South Korean component maker had considered working with Argo AI in the past but the startup close its business before this could happen.

LG Innotek has been vocal recently on fostering its camera module and lidar businesses for automobiles.

Argo AI had filed 13 patents in South Korea as well and these are likely family patents that it transferred to LG Innotek in the US.

Argo AI was founded in 2016 and received funding from Ford and Volkswagen and was once valued at US$7 billion.

But the auto giants pulled out of the startup and Ford founded its own company called Latitude AI in March, which included members of Argo AI.