The Detroit Bureau

Ford has extensive experience in the development of onboard and offboard applications for SYNC car connectivity system.

By Joseph Szczesny, the BureauForget of Detroit in the rust belt, Ford Motor Co. is now officially a part of the high-tech world of Silicon Valley.

The growing role of digital technology in the automotive industry has a new electronics research laboratory in a silicon chip to detect, throw such tech giants like Apple, Google and Intel the automaker opened.
"We have been innovative for more than a century at Ford, but we recognize that we no monopoly on creativity," Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford observed during the formal inauguration of the new laboratory in mountain view, California "complemented our existing research efforts allow our new Office in the region to tap into us, forward in the last few decades has pushed forward the technology of the consumer."

Long U.S. associated was the industrial heartland, Ford its global reach with a network of so-called "Research and innovation" expanded facilities in Aachen, Germany; Nanjing, People's Republic of China; and his home in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn. It has also on technology Scouts in Tel Aviv, set Israel.

"We want to show Silicon Valley Ford as a platform, open, accessible, and ready for their innovative ideas and technologies," said Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer and Vice President of the Ford Research and advanced engineering. "We are on the lookout for unexpected solutions for the future, and we believe that Silicon Valley the right place to round off our global research organization."


Valley lab will serve Ford's Silicon, such as a local point of contact for many relations Ford already with Bay area technology companies and startups. His main task is to use concentrated themselves support an independent laboratory on three key areas, the future of mobility, including the data however, open source innovation and ease of use.

"We see technology as more than just an impressive list of microprocessors, sensors and software," added Mascarenas. "It is the prerequisite for a secure, intuitive, and pleasant time behind the wheel."


Increasingly, Ford is a data-driven company, merger of internal and external sources to make to support product and marketing plans, and strategic decision making. In addition, the data can vehicle from the growing list of sensing technologies in the car used, a personalized to create productive and more comfortable driving experience, then aggregates to help address congestion and to improve the efficiency.

Open-source innovation keeps the car as a platform and provides access to real-time data allows for the rapid development of custom hardware and software applications. Ford has extensive experience in the development of onboard and offboard applications for SYNC ® car connectivity system. Now, the Silicon Valley lab is look at open source development with the research platform OpenXC developed Bug Labs.


The user experience means that information and services of the driver in the way presented, which does not take away the primary task of the operation of the vehicle. Ford is thinking such as drivers and passengers with vehicles as well as interact, how vehicles with them should interact. Innovations in design and new technologies can optimally organize to provide filtering and content.
"How new ways of processing, curating and are designed to filter information, the ways to improve personal mobility almost unlimited", said Venkatesh Prasad, general manager of the new lab and senior of technical manager of open innovation.

"With forward-thinking minds in the world, located many of the best in the San Francisco Bay, the Ford is Silicon Valley lab ideally positioned to interact with and make connections to local innovators and the relationships with our current partners grow," Prasad said.

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Hybrids safer than conventional cars, research shows

Yuriko Nakao / Reuters

Prius hybrid vehicles are shown near a Toyota plant in central Japan.

If the fuel-saving benefits weren’t enough, now there’s another good reason for buying a hybrid vehicle instead of a conventional gas-only model.

Research by an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows hybrid vehicles are safer than their conventional counterparts when it comes to shielding their occupants from injuries in crashes.

On average, the odds of being injured in a crash are 25 percent lower for people in hybrids than people traveling in comparable non-hybrid vehicles, the research found.

“Weight is a big factor,” said Matt Moore, vice president of the Highway Loss Data Institute and an author of the report. “Hybrids on average are 10 percent heavier than their standard counterparts. This extra mass gives them an advantage in crashes that their conventional twins don’t have.”

Hybrid cars are heavier than cars that only use an internal combustion engine because they have large, heavy batteries and two engines. They save on fuel by storing the energy produced when braking and using it to power the vehicle at low speeds.

Moore points to other possible factors for the better safety record for hybrid vehicles, such as how, when and by whom hybrids are driven. Researchers said they included controls to account for these factors.

The study estimated the odds that a crash would result in injuries if people were riding in a hybrid vs. the conventional version of the same vehicle. The analysis used data from more than 25 hybrid-conventional vehicle pairs from the 2003-11 model years.

The study’s findings are good news for green-minded drivers who are also looking for safety in their cars. But it’s worth noting that hybrid vehicles still pose a risk to pedestrians.

At low speeds in densely built areas, hybrid cars and pure electric vehicles rely on electric propulsion. That makes them much quieter than gas-powered cars, posing a risk to pedestrians.

A 2009 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found a higher rate of pedestrian crashes for hybrids than for conventional gas-powered cars, especially when the vehicles were turning.

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