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NEWS
Ford's autonomous driving research centre opened
New facility in Silicon Valley aims to fast-track a driverless futureFord has announced the opening of its new Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, California – a stone's throw away from two of the world's foremost IT research institutions, Stanford University and Carnegie-Mellon University.
The car manufacturer has established the Center (sic) for the purposes of advanced research in the areas of "connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, customer experience and big data."
Ford is joined in its work by Stanford University – well known for its early work on ARPANET and as a breeding ground for high-tech start-ups. The university has taken delivery of a Ford Fusion Hybrid for a new phase of autonomous vehicle testing by the engineers at the Stanford campus.
At Ford's new facility, an ex-Apple staff member, Dragos Maciuca, will take on the role of senior technical leader, with a large automotive research team consisting of 125 researchers, engineers and scientists to be recruited before the end of the year. Maciuca holds a PHd in Mechanical Engineering, and his experience ranges across consumer electronics, semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace and automotive.
In the field of autonomous vehicle research, the Ford team will test such issues as sign recognition in a gaming-style environment named aDRIVE (Autonomous Driving Refined in Virtual Environments).
A connectivity project being actively pursued involves two-way automated communication between car and home. Once the homeowners leave in the car, the home will automatically reduce energy consumption, and while the homeowners are away, the home will inform them via the car of any unexpected situations – such as fire breaking out or some other emergency.
Under the auspice of mobility, Ford is investigating ways of remotely driving golf carts located thousands of kilometres away, with the aid of real-time video streaming. According to Ford, this will provide a foundation stone for future car sharing systems and a new means of valet parking.
A team at Carnegie Mellon University is working hand in hand with Ford on improved speech recognition software, leading inevitably – the partners hope – to natural voice commands for easier operation of comfort and convenience features in future production cars.
This will pave the way for improved customer experience, says Ford, and speech recognition could be the principal means by which vehicle passengers set up 10-way adjustable multi-contour seats with inflatable bladders, for optimal comfort.
Analysis of 'big data' at Palo Alto will provide a better conception of the way we use our vehicles, and how improved transportation alternatives might better meet the needs of the future.
"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 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."
The Palo Alto facility will lock into Ford's global innovation and research network, already comprising centres of expertise in Deaborn (Michigan) and Aachen in Germany.
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Written byCarsales Staff
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