Ford Opens new Silicon Valley research centre

Ford’s newly opened Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto, US, will drive the company’s innovation in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and big data, it says. The new research centre will continue the company’s work on autonomous vehicles, including ongoing work with University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It will also expand collaboration with Stanford University that started in 2013 and will contribute a Fusion autonomous research vehicle to t
January 26, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
278 Ford’s newly opened Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto, US, will drive the company’s innovation in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and big data, it says.

The new research centre will continue the company’s work on autonomous vehicles, including ongoing work with 5594 University of Michigan and 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It will also expand collaboration with Stanford University that started in 2013 and will contribute a Fusion autonomous research vehicle to the Stanford engineering program to begin testing the path planning-and-prediction algorithms researchers have developed over the past year.

The Palo Alto team has also developed a virtual test environment based on gaming software, called aDRIVE (Autonomous Driving Refined in Virtual Environments), that will test algorithms such as traffic sign recognition in dynamic driving situations. This allows for more aggressive time lines for validating driving algorithms to prepare for on-road testing.

As the next phase in Ford’s Remote Repositioning mobility experiment, the Palo Alto team is now testing the ability to drive vehicles located on Georgia Institute of Technology’s campus in Atlanta from the Bay Area to prove the new technology, which could help lead to more affordable and effective ways to manage car-sharing Initiatives, or park vehicles remotely as a new form of valet parking.

The all-new Research and Innovation Center Palo Alto joins Ford’s global network of research and innovation centres, including its location in Dearborn, Michigan, which focuses on advanced electronics, human-machine interface, materials science, big data and analytics; and Aachen, Germany, which focuses on next-generation powertrain research, driver-assist technologies and active safety systems.

With the new facility, Ford expects to have one of the largest automotive manufacturer research centres in Silicon Valley by the end of the year, with 125 researchers, engineers and scientists.

“At Ford, we view ourselves as both a mobility and an auto company, as we drive innovation in every part of our business,” said Mark Fields, Ford Motor Company president and CEO.

“This new research center shows Ford’s commitment to be part of the Silicon Valley innovation ecosystem – anticipating customers’ wants and needs, especially on connectivity, mobility and autonomous vehicles. We are working to make these new technologies accessible to everyone, not just luxury customers.”
Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • TSB funding for intelligent transport solution project
    May 27, 2014
    University Campus Milton Keynes is working with Clearview Traffic Group on a 13-month research that could lead to the development of innovative traffic management systems. UCMK, part of the University of Bedfordshire, will receive $195,000 of funding from the UK’s innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, to carry out the research. The project will see UCMK and the University’s Department of Computer Science and Technology partner with Clearview Traffic Group to explore the feasibility of extendi
    Read More
  • Dutch autonomous vehicle project to develop platooning
    December 1, 2015
    The i-CAVE (integrated Cooperative Automated Vehicles) research program, led by Prof. Dr H. Nijmeijer of the Technical University of Eindhoven and funded through a recently awarded grant of US$4.2 million, aims to develop vehicles that can run both autonomously on dedicated roads or cooperatively on public roads. i-CAVE focuses on all important aspects involved in the development of such dual mode systems. Other participants include Delft University of Technology and University of Twente, 2getthere, DAF
    Read More
  • 50 years of Cubic Transportation Systems
    August 25, 2022
    If you detect an air of celebration on the Cubic stand, there’s a good reason for it. June 2022 marked 50 years of Cubic Transportation Systems. While Cubic Corporation started 70 years ago, the transportation business began in 1972 and has since been nurtured and developed into a successful $1 billion enterprise and an established leader in the transportation industry.
    Read More
  • Ford to launch AVs on Lyft network
    July 28, 2021
    Argo AI is to use anonymised service and fleet data from Lyft in Miami and Austin
    Read More

Highlighted Content