Automaker Ford opened its Research and Innovation Center yesterday in Silicon Valley, in efforts to get closer to the tech industry and improve its own connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, and big data solutions.
By the end of 2015, Ford expects the Stanford Research Park research centre to host 125 researchers, engineers and scientists to work on different projects.
The car maker already has a research centre in the area, launched in 2012 and employing 8 members, reported Forbes.
During the centre’s opening event, Ford also gave a preview of some of its projects, which included collaboration with a Nest application programming interface to bring communication between a car and the Nest Thermostat.
The company is also working with Carnegie Mellon University to create improved embedded speech recognition systems which will support more natural language.
The Palo Alto team is also working on a project which will allow a person sitting in the Palo Alto laboratory to access real-time video streamed to drive golf carts thousands of miles away using 4G/LTE technology.
Ford also plans to expand its research and development programme with Stanford University, and is likely to test virtual environments based on the aDRIVE gaming software.
The Palo Alto-based engineers are expected to develop sensor kits to get information from bicycles and other transportation in urban areas.
According to ford, the data collected from the vehicles are likely to provide insight into how alternate modes of transportation might be best positioned to serve future urban mobility needs.
Ford Research and Advanced Engineering vice president Ken Washington said: "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.
"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."
