Ford Motor Co. is hoping foster innovation by opening a research center in Silicon Valley that is devoted to development for the connected car and autonomous car. The center, which will be based in Palo Alto, Calif., will focus on the convergence of the automobile and mobility.
According to PCMag, former Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) engineer Dragos Maciuca will be in charge of the facility, which is expected to have a team of 125 researchers, engineers and scientists by the end of the year.
This isn't Ford's first entrée into research centers. The company also operates innovation centers in Dearborn, Mich., and Aachen, Germany. Those centers, however, focus on areas such as advanced electronics, powertrain advancements, driver-assist technologies and safety.
Ford has been very active in the connected car space with its Sync in-car platform. The latest version of that platform, the Sync 3, was unveiled late last year.
Sync 3 is powered by BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY) subsidiary QNX's technology and supports AppLink apps on both Android and iOS. The Sync 3 lets users connect their smartphone to their vehicle and control their compatible apps using voice commands or buttons on the vehicle's display screen.
For more:
- see this PCMag article
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