Ford to Ramp Up Efforts for Driverless Cars at New Silicon Valley Lab

Self Driving Cars  

Car maker Ford recently expanded its presence in Silicon Valley to develop future automotive technologies like self driving cars.  The company also announced a collaboration with Google, to integrate Nest home automation apps into dashboard infotainment systems.

In 2012, Ford opened an office in Silicon Valley, in order to further advance its in-car infotainment technology and develop new in-car apps. Up until now, it was just a small office with about 8-10 employees, but now, the company has decided to increase its presence at the world's largest hub for high-tech development, with a new innovation center that it plans to use to further develop its autonomous driving and car connectivity technologies.

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Recently, the Dearborn-based car maker opened a larger research center, covering 25,000 square feet, which will employ 125 people, including researchers, engineers, app developers and scientists. Ford wants to take advantage of the fact that Silicon Valley has the largest concentration of innovative high-tech companies, such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, to name a few, and the possibility to share ideas with people working for these tech giants.

"Growing the Palo Alto team will strengthen our global research prowess and drive innovation needed to meet the needs of our customers in the future," said Ken Washington, vice president, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, in a company press release. "Working together with the Silicon Valley research community will spark the new ideas, products and services that will help Ford once again change the way the world moves," he added.

One of the key areas that will be in the focus at the new center will be infotainment systems, with developers working on improving Ford's speech recognition technology, in order to enhance the human-machine interface found in Ford's vehicles. The company said that developers will try to create an interface that will allow drivers and passengers to adjust their power seats via voice commands.

Furthermore, Ford plans to start a collaboration with Google, and have its scientists develop a system that will allow car owners to control and adjust the tech giant's Nest home thermostat through Ford's SYNC infotainment system. The intention is to integrate the Nest app into cars' dashboards, so that a car's infotainment system can switch the thermostat's settings and shift between “away” and “normal” modes depending on whether the car is leaving the house or arriving.

Also, researchers will test self-driving car technology, creating a virtual driving environment where they will be able to work on automated driving features such as traffic sign recognition and parking vehicles remotely. What's more, Ford said that it will loan a Fusion Hybrid to Stanford University, which will use it for testing autonomous vehicle algorithms, helping the automaker further improve its driverless car technology.

Finally, Ford will use the new center to gather data from vehicles and analyze driving patterns in urban areas, which could help policymakers develop new solutions for improving alternative transportation modes, as part of the company's sustainable urban mobility efforts.

With this Silicon Valley initiative, Ford clearly shows that it wants to become a leading force in the future autonomous vehicle market, and it is yet another proof that the auto industry is heading towards an even deeper integration with the high-tech sector.

By Jordan Perch

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