Posted on 11/19/2015 6:51:57 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Within walking distance of Tesla Motors' Palo Alto headquarters and across the street from Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor Co. has set up a new Silicon Valley outpost.
With a team of 100 reporting to a former Apple engineer, the Detroit giant is researching how humans experience machines, running autonomous-vehicle driving simulations and testing software that examines how bicycles and cars interact.
"For 100 years, automobiles have been a mechanical engineering industry," said the center's director, Dragos Maciuca, who on his morning commute drives past a nearby research center of German automotive electronics and parts supplier Bosch. "Now, there is the shift to software -- and the mecca of software is Silicon Valley."
Ford's Western hub, opened in January, is just one sign of California's emergence as the global center for the future of personal mobility. Other automotive powerhouses with Silicon Valley offices include Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and automotive suppliers Continental, Delphi and Denso.
The state has led development of self-driving cars, advanced green vehicles and automotive software, including Google's and Apple's growing -- though still somewhat secret -- automotive operations. California's aggressive environmental regulation and generous electric car subsidies have nurtured companies such as Tesla and its emerging rival Faraday Future.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Google cars arent that secret. They clog up the roads routinely here.
So they are there for the corporate welfare like all the rest.
And how does California intend to charge all those electric cars?
Oh that’s right. Electricity comes out of the wall.
Gee. Nearly 50,000 jobs associated with electric car or alternative energy cars. Wow!
I guess these new jobs makes a big ass dent in having to pay for the entitlements and trouble caused by 2.8 million illegals in California.
Good job, guys...keep it up.
Electric cars are not any greener. What do you have to burn to make the electricity at a power plant? What about the energy losses transmitting the power from power plant to the car? What about the manufacture and disposal of millions of pounds of toxic chemicals making and disposing of the batteries. Not any greener, maybe worse than the good old, computer controlled, gasoline engine.
“With a team of 100 reporting to a former Apple engineer, the Detroit giant is researching how humans experience machines, running autonomous-vehicle driving simulations and testing software that examines how bicycles and cars interact.”
Cars and bicycles interact like this. A bicycle rider thinks the road belongs to him and he goes into the car lane, car hits bicycle, rider usually killed or maimed. Don’t need software for that.
Very popular in San Francisco
omg
Self-driving cares are inevitable. Detroit has lagged on this because of the old-time car guys, but they’re finally retiring.
Self-driving, BTW, would essentially eliminate the drunk driving problem. Who cares if you’re sloshed when all you need to do is tell your car “go home - I’m drunk.”
The Los Angeles Times [paper edition] had an article on Sat, Nov 14, 2015:
[my summary follows]
“Electric vehicles beat gas cars in study”
by Jerry Hirsch
He reports on a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, authored by UCS scientist Rachael Nealer.
That study found that ... a cradle-to-grave analysis ... finds electrical cars create less greenhouse gas than gasoline vehicles.
It may take 5 to 20 thousand miles for the electric car’s advantage to overcome the initial carbon costs of battery manufacture, but after that they are “impressive” and “much cleaner”
Meanwhile, I recall a Google study that green energy (wind and solar) were net losers.
So the brainwashing ramps up.
tell your car “go home - I’m drunk.â€
= = =
So the car takes you to the cop shop and turns you in.
They need software to figure that out?
Computer simulation can be done on a Playstation with “Grand Theft Auto”.
World’s Ugliest Vehicle Unveiled
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3355919/posts
I wish we still had real Packards.
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