Ford Motor Co. has bought off its stake in Velodyne Lidar Inc., a number one maker of sensors getting used within the growth of self-driving vehicles.

Ford, which invested $75 million in Velodyne in 2016, not held any shares as of the tip of final 12 months, in response to a regulatory submitting. The automaker held nearly 13.1 million shares three months earlier, a holding value $244.2 million on the finish of the third quarter.

“That is in keeping with our efforts to make the most effective, highest use of capital,” stated T.R. Reid, a Ford spokesman. “We’re utilizing Velodyne expertise in our autonomous automobiles.”

Velodyne final 12 months merged with Graf Industrial Corp., a special-purpose acquisition firm, and trades on the Nasdaq exchange beneath the ticker VLDR. Inventory markets have been closed Monday for Presidents’ Day.

Ford took a stake in Velodyne six months earlier than it invested $1 billion in self-driving startup Argo AI, led by Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, earlier leaders at autonomous groups at Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Uber Applied sciences Inc. Since then, Argo has developed a complete self-driving system that Ford intends to deploy commercially subsequent 12 months. Lidar, which bounces gentle off objects to evaluate form and site in actual time, has change into key proprietary expertise within the race to develop driverless automobiles.

Argo is also creating autonomous autos for Volkswagen Group, which invested $2.6 billion within the startup final 12 months, giving it a valuation of $7 billion.

Automotive Information contributed to this report.