Autonomy of Ghost, Supported by OpenAI, Ceases Operations

Ghost Autonomy, a startup working on autonomous driving software for automaker partners, has shut down, TechCrunch has learned. The company, which had raised nearly $220 million, has released a statement on its website announcing that it has ceased all operations worldwide as of Wednesday. With approximately 100 employees and locations in Mountain View, Dallas, and Sydney, the company has made significant progress in its mission to deliver software-defined consumer autonomy.

“We are proud of the substantial technical innovations and progress the Ghost team made on its mission to deliver software-defined consumer autonomy,” the statement reads.

“The path to long-term profitability was uncertain given the current funding climate and long-term investment required for autonomy development and commercialization. We are exploring potential long-term destinations for our team’s innovations.”

The news comes just five months after Ghost Autonomy partnered with OpenAI through the OpenAI Startup Fund. This partnership gave the startup early access to OpenAI systems and Azure resources from Microsoft, and also included a $5 million investment from OpenAI. Last year, Ghost Autonomy closed a $55 million down round, which included early investors Keith Rabois at Founders Fund and Mike Speiser at Sutter Hill Ventures.

Originally founded in 2017 as Ghost Locomotion, the startup’s name reflects its initial focus on developing a kit that would allow privately owned passenger vehicles to drive autonomously on highways. However, as with many startups in this space, Ghost Autonomy has shifted its approach over the years.

“Our goal is to explore the applications of multimodal large language models (LLMs) in self-driving,” said Ghost co-founder and CEO John Hayes. LLMs, or AI models that can understand both text and images, offer a new way to understand complex scenes where current models fall short.

However, some experts were skeptical of this approach.

In 2019, Ghost Autonomy made its public debut with $63.7 million in total investment from notable names such as Keith Rabois, Vinod Khosla, and Mike Speiser. The company’s goal was to deliver their autonomous driving kit in 2020.

“After the deadline passed, we had to pivot and focus on crash prevention technology,” said Hayes in 2021. The startup raised an additional $100 million that year, with an altered plan to prioritize collision avoidance tech. The Series D funding round was led by Sutter Hill Ventures, with investment from Founders Fund and Coatue. Hayes also mentioned that the consumer kit model was not entirely off the table, but the company was shifting its efforts to get to market faster with their universal collision avoidance technology.

Hayes, who was reached via email, explained that the company had completed a highway driving product and was in the process of maneuvering through urban environments for “last-mile delivery.” However, the company ultimately faced financial obstacles in bringing their product to market in a timely manner.

“Ultimately, the years required to bring the product to market could not be financed,” wrote Hayes.