There's an Apple-like acquisition trend in the self-driving car space

Ford's self-driving car subsidiary Argo AI has acquired Princeton Lightwave, a LiDAR producer, in a move to take ownership of its supply chain, which is becoming more common in the autonomous vehicle (AV) development space.

LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection And Ranging, are sensors used by AVs to determine how far away objects are in the world around it to create a 3D map of road conditions. The system works by sending out lightwaves from lasers that bounce off objects before returning to the sensor, similar to how more commonly understood tools like radar and sonar function.

Argo AI CEO Bryan Salesky announced the acquisition in a Medium post, calling the sensor tech "crucial" to the development of Argo's autonomous platform. He wrote that the move to bring Princeton onboard makes Argo "uniquely positioned" to build out its hardware and software systems together, which presumably gives the company more direct control over how the platform works as one, along with cutting costs by owning the means of LiDAR production.

Argo AI will undoubtedly benefit from bringing its LiDAR supplier in-house, but the acquisition isn't quite as unique as Salesky implies. GM-owned Cruise Automation bought its own LiDAR producer, Strobe, earlier this month — Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt even wrote up a similar Medium post to announce the news, citing the same productivity and cost-saving benefits as Salesky.

Waymo, which has demonstrated one of the most advanced self-driving platforms on the road, was one of the first companies to take control of its LiDAR supply chain. The Google spinoff announced that it was making its own hardware back in January, and CEO John Krafcik claimed that the company was able to cut its LiDAR costs by about 70 percent.

These acquisitions and decisions to bring hardware production in-house are becoming a trend as the self-driving development market matures. The big movers and shakers are recognizing the value of the companies that build the components for autonomous systems, and are taking initiative to lock down the tech for themselves.

No one wants to become the next Tesla, which had an ugly falling out with autonomous tech supplier Mobileye after a fatal crash last year (to be clear, Tesla's Autopilot doesn't use LiDAR). Since the breakup, Tesla hasn't updated its Autopilot system according to its projections, recently drawing the ire of famous fan, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

By buying out suppliers, companies like Argo AI and Cruise Automation get even more control — and the ability to avoid the development headaches that come with depending on partners.