Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Deborah Gross calls it “Robotics Row.” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald dubs it “Innovation Row.” It’s a site where he expects to see not only Uber’s fleet of self-driving gray Volvo XC90s “racing around the track,” but also a horde of white cars.
For self-driving outfit Argo AI, the Strip District is just home — and it will remain that way with a new headquarters at 3 Crossings, the company announced Tuesday morning, a move reported earlier by the Post-Gazette.
Of course, those white cars mentioned by Mr. Fitzgerald belong to Argo AI, the artificial intelligence engineering startup that received a $1 billion investment from Ford over a five-year span.
The company will move from the Crane Building to Oxford Development Co.’s future Riverfront West building at the 3 Crossings project in the Strip District.
The startup will join the likes of Apple and German technology firm Robert Bosch LLC at the riverfront complex, which borders Smallman and Railroad streets from 25th to 29th streets. It’s about a block from the Crane Building and will be a quick self-driving car trip away from the Uber Advanced Technologies Center on 32nd Street.
This type of “robotics row” was a story 30 years in the making, said Kevin Acklin, chief of staff for Mayor Bill Peduto.
“Some of the technology that’s in that [Argo AI] car ... was developed at Carnegie Mellon,” he said, noting that Bryan Salesky, CEO of Argo AI spent his time at the National Robotics Engineering Center in Lawrenceville “in the trenches, doing this work, well before anybody thought this was even possible.”
“This was George Jetson territory,” Mr. Acklin said.
Right now, Riverfront West is just a pile of dirt and rocks, but by summer 2018, it’ll be Argo AI’s flagship office, one of three engineering hubs, including two others in Dearborn, Mich., and Mountain View, Calif.
“We founded Argo with the intention of really headquartering it here in Pittsburgh and keeping it here in Pittsburgh and we’re really excited to be able to do that,” Mr. Salesky said.
Still, Mr. Salesky — who studied at Seneca Valley Senior High School in Harmony before studying at the University of Pittsburgh — said the company wants “to hire talent wherever it is,” ensuring everyone working on the startup’s self-driving system for Ford can live where they want to.
“If someone likes the Bay Area weather ... then we’re happy to let them work out of our Mountain View office,” he said. “Obviously, anybody that’s working really closely with Ford to integrate technology, it makes sense for them to be in Dearborn.”
That flexibility is not only part of the company’s ethos, it’s nearly a requirement in talent acquisition.
“That’s becoming a more and more necessary thing to attract top talent,” Mr. Salesky said. “They want the lifestyle that suits them.”
Part of that status includes walkability, the ability to take a bike to work and a hot nightlife and food scene.
“A lot of the folks that work for us today in Pittsburgh, they live in the Strip District, they love new condos and residential areas ... and all the restaurant options,” he said. “We asked them, ‘Would you be interested in another area of Pittsburgh?’ and everybody overwhelmingly said to keep us in the Strip.”
Currently, Argo AI has hired 160 of the 200 employees it originally intended to, but Mr. Salesky said the company has the momentum to fill the remaining positions by the end of the year.
He said Argo AI is not seeking temporary space in the interim while waiting to move from the Crane Building to Riverfront West, despite another tech company moving into the company’s current home.
Wombat Security Technologies, a Carnegie Mellon spinoff specializing in information security training, announced earlier this month that it will be moving into that 23,850-square-foot second floor space in the Crane Building next year.
In the meantime, Mr. Salesky is looking forward to the move, another stage in Pittsburgh’s transformation from Steel City to “robot row.”
“I’ve most recently spent a number of years in the West Coast and when I came back full time to Pittsburgh, it’s just incredible what’s happened,” he said. “Everybody is coming back to the city to live, work and play, the streets are changing ... I can’t believe this is Railroad Street. It’s pretty incredible.”
Courtney Linder: clinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1707. Twitter: @LinderPG.
First Published: September 19, 2017, 4:49 p.m.
