Ford Announces New Research Lab in Silicon Valley – doing open-source hardware?

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Ford Announces New Research Lab in Silicon Valley.

Ford Motor Company will open a research lab in Silicon Valley in early 2012, hoping to keep pace with consumer technology and mobile innovations. Ford joins General Motors, BMW, and the Renault-Nissan Alliance as the latest company to establish a presence in Silicon Valley. Verizon and AT&T recently announced similar moves to the west coast.

Working to support the work of Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, the new lab will try to recruit local talent, as well as establish partnerships with new tech startup firms and researchers. The move also puts Ford in closer proximity to the other members of its “innovation network” – its Advanced Design Studio in Irvine, California, and its connectivity platform partner Microsoft in Redmond, Washington.

The Palo Alto-based lab will focus on researching new solutions for personal mobility, creating open-source hardware and software developer kits, and developing ways to utilize a vehicle’s multitude of sensors for mobile apps.

This is cool, we’d also like to Ford sponsor TechShops and Hackerspaces 🙂


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1 Comment

  1. It would be especially nice if those sponsorships came from money they planned to spend on SOPA support: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/money .

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