The Renault-Nissan Alliance is opening a research office this month in Silicon Valley across from the famous Google Campus. The company says it will allow it to “capitalize on the region’s world class engineering talent and stay ahead of trends that are reshaping the way people interact with their cars.”
“The Alliance is at the vanguard of the auto industry’s shift to sustainable transportation. Having a greater footprint in one of the world’s headquarters for clean tech research will extend our lead further,” said Carlos Ghosn, CEO and Chairman of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, who is giving a talk at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) today.
Nissan says it will use the Silicon Valley office to focus on vehicle IT research, including graphical user-interface displays, in-car Internet connectivity and smart-grid research. An example of this is Nissan’s “Carwings” telematics system, a standard in every Nissan LEAF, which includes a touch screen display with maps of recharging stations and real-time reports on energy consumption.
Whether we like it or not many future cars will be developed in Silicon Valley. Think about it – a century ago engineers and scientists interested in helping the fledgling auto industry flocked to Detroit, Stuttgart, Coventry and other areas where early auto companies got started.
Tomorrow’s cars are likely to be largely devoid of many mechanical parts. Electronics are already the most important part of a modern car and will become increasingly so in the future.
Renault-Nissan joins other companies in realizing the value of a presence in Silicon Valley. For example, back in 1998 the Volkswagen Group opened its Electronic Research Laboratory (ERL) in Silicon Valley. In 2005, with help from nearby Stanford University and Google, Stanley, an autonomous Touareg was born. It won the $2 million prize in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, by navigating a desert race course in Nevada without human intervention.
It’s a know fact that autonomous cars are already trolling streets in the area as software engineers fine tune systems readying them for our future use. So, if you see a Renault or Nissan with a driver without his or her hands on the steering wheel you’ll now know why.
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