Inside Ford's New Silicon Valley Lab

An anonymous reader writes Engadget takes a look at Ford's new Research and Innovation Center located in Palo Alto. The company hopes to use the new facility to speed the development of projects such as autonomous cars and better natural voice recognition. From the article: "This isn't Ford's first dance with the Valley — it actually started its courtship several years ago when it opened its inaugural Silicon Valley office in 2012. The new center, however, is a much bigger effort, with someone new at the helm. That person is Dragos Maciuca, a former Apple engineer with significant experience in consumer electronics, semiconductors, aerospace and automotive tech. Ford also hopes to build a team of 125 professionals under Maciuca, which would make the company one of the largest dedicated automotive research teams in the Valley."

Comments

They need help

[Rick Zeman]

Ford's voice recognition in the MyFord Touch sucks more than a porn star.

Re:They need help

[mlts]

I've had decent luck with it overall. At the time I bought my vehicle, one could choose a SYNC navigation system with or without touch screen. I chose the one without. So far, it has worked without issue, alongside quite a number of iOS and Android devices, and the voice system is "meh", but it does work.

Just because it has worked so well on a day to day basis, I'd buy it again. It isn't perfect, but with modern tech where things get obsoleted in a year or two, what is?

Re:They need help

[Virtucon]

have you tried tipping and champagne cocktails?

Re:They need help

[mjwx]

Ford's voice recognition in the MyFord Touch sucks more than a porn star.

Hey, take it easy.

Up until this year, Ford's flagship coupe still ran a live rear axle. They've only just put independent rear suspension (on a rear wheel drive car) this year. If it's taken them decades to get multi-link suspension on one of their best selling cars, expecting them to develop software that works in just a few years is a bit rich.

Good example of bad use of touch screens

[OzPeter]

The last video in TFA is about the Ford's HMI testbed, which is used to try out different cockpit configurations. During that video they show the driver selecting something on the touch screen panel in the center console. During this event you can clearly see the driver take his eyes off the road in order to watch what his fingers are doing.

Re:Good example of bad use of touch screens

[mlts]

I wish the industry would go back to knobs, dials, and buttons, a HUD [1], or at least haptic feedback on the touch screen.

Even nicer about using physical controls, security is a non-issue. There wouldn't have to be one shared touch screen that has to be sitting on the core CAN, but the dials and such can go to the more or less critical modules, so that the dial for turning on and off ABS would be going to a completely separate assembly than the one linked to the climate control system.

[1]: The Nissan Maxima used to sport a small HUD with the speed and other core info. It was pretty useful where one didn't have to glance down for that.

Re:Good example of bad use of touch screens

[OzPeter]

I wish the industry would go back to knobs, dials, and buttons

I generally work in industrial automation and I can assure you that physical controls are still used in a lot of places as primary controls where direct and rapid operator intervention/control is required (EG cranes, steel mills). Only secondary controls get shuffled off onto graphical displays.

This morning I was also lamenting the loss of the analogue volume control from laptops. It used to be that you could dial the volume down before you booted, where as nowadays the volume is stuck at where you left it, until the system is running enough processes that you can use the digital controls to quite it down.

Re:Good example of bad use of touch screens

[wcrowe]

The technology in my Subaru works great, but even though it works reliably, there is a problem with those bits that require the touch screen. First, as you mentioned, you do need to take your eyes off the road. Secondly, even on a relatively smooth road, hitting the correct spot on a touch screen is difficult. OTOH, if you had buttons for everything you wanted to do, there would be too many buttons. The best compromise is to have a unit similar to the screens on the F/A-18 Hornet. The screen shows the information, while the programmable, physical buttons which surround the screen serve different functions depending on the screen. In other words, they are function keys.

Re:Good example of bad use of touch screens

[mlts]

The last laptop that I remember having that was a Thinkpad 365XD. It was nice because no matter what, if you wanted the sound off, it was off. Now, you have to beg/plead with the OS and hope it mutes whatever sound it might want to make.

I'm glad that in critical areas, physical controls are used. I just wish they would return back to cars for radio and climate control systems. Touch screens like the large one on the Tesla are nice and can serve a large number of functions, but every second the driver's eyes are averted from the road is a second a wreck can happen. Controls on the steering wheel do help in this regard, but they can vary widely.

Re:Good example of bad use of touch screens

[schlachter]

My Nissan Leaf is setup like this. It's got a nice big color screen for information but dedicated buttons surrounding the screen. The buttons mostly have preassigned functions although they are context dependent. I love that I can operate my audio without looking but can get loads of info if I choose to look.

Don't know if I could ever be happy with a touch screen in my car.

Re:Good example of bad use of touch screens

[AaronW]

Tesla also has steering wheel controls which are highly configurable which can control the radio and climate control. There is also voice input.

Apple engineers save the day

[Anonymous Coward]

"That person is Dragos Maciuca. He opened up his wings...huge, beautiful, white feathers everywhere. He then took to the sky. He would save Ford. He would save the world."

Re:F.O.R.D.

[CaTfiSh]

First On Race Day would be the antithesis.

Several?

[sudon't]

Let's get our approximates right!

A couple = ~2
A few = ~3
Several = ~7

Re:Several?

[OhSoLaMeow]

Let's get our approximates right!

A couple = ~2
A few = ~3
Several = ~7

I always heard that 3 was a crowd.

Re: F.O.R.D.

[OffaMyLawn]

Fucker Only Runs Downhill

CMax Wooo

[wb8nbs]

Maybe they can figure out why my C-Max makes a loud tone out the speakers when the engine is at exactly 2380 RPM. This car has an Active Noise Cancellation processor with several microphones and it is going berserk. Some Fusions get the same oscillation.

Apparently Ford decided it was cheaper to put in a DSP than to add sound insulation.

Follow Germany's lead

[WindBourne]

Germany is currently behind in driving automation, but by their gov. creating a lane between 2 cities in which only partial and fully automated cars car drive, well, they will move this up QUICKLY.
If Tesla and Google want to retain their lead and Ford wants to join them, then they should encourage California to create some lanes that are 50 miles or long on road that are heavily traveled by commuters. In addition, CA would be wise to let these companies use some of their cars for experiments.

Re:Lets hope they can do better than MyTouch

[WindBourne]

Ford has quit Microsoft (thank god) and switched to QNX, which is a decent realtime system.

Re:They do need a LOT of help

[WindBourne]

Spend time in the model S.
Believe me, the physical buttons SUX once you spend time on the Model S.
Heck, you mention volume and and channels, and yet, radios can be changed. That makes it hard to deal with.
With the large screen, it is possible for Tesla to allow us to have our own layouts (and it will come).

Re:F.O.R.D.

[KlomDark]

Flipped-Over Rotten Dog

Re:Happy Monday from The Golden Girls!

[dgatwood]

Your heart is true, you're a pal and a cosmonaut.

For once, this troll is on topic. It demonstrates why voice recognition needs to improve. After all, it's hard to wreck a nice beach.

Maximum noise...

[Firethorn]

Actually, auto makers are tending to do the opposite, actually using speakers and installing other systems to make the engine noises LOUDER. ;)

Re:Happy Monday from The Golden Girls!

[Iniamyen]

Almost made 1st. Keep trying!