LA Times -- 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.

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. 

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/laautoshow/la-fi-hy-california-auto-industry-20151118-story.html

GovTech -- As the private sector races to develop self-driving cars and regulators push to connect vehicles to make them safer and more efficient, America’s cities are increasingly becoming literal testing facilities for innovation.

The need for an urban environment to pilot technologies vying to revolutionize transportation has been well documented: As Google has put self-driving cars on public streets in Mountain View, Calif., and Austin, Texas, researchers at the University of Michigan have set up a “fake city” with traffic signals and streets to test out vehicle connection concepts. But during the past two days, leaders trying to pave the way for futuristic vehicle tech have asserted that cities should be doing more than just serving as the physical settings in which new ideas become realities — they should be doing all they can to accelerate those ideas into more concrete formations.

The first step was the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announcing Monday the availability of $50 million in funding for cities to implement high-tech transportation improvement projects revolving around concepts like vehicle-to-infrastructure connections. Next was a daylong conference held Tuesday, Dec. 8, at the Telecommunications Industry Association’s headquarters in Arlington, Va., where government and private-sector leaders discussed the role cities can and should play in helping that kind of technology develop.

Brian Cronin, a team leader in the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, said during the conference that technology has progressed to the point where the adoption of futuristic-sounding technologies like vehicles that flow seamlessly through intersections isn’t too crazy to consider. From a municipal perspective, he said, there isn’t anything stopping public servants from beginning to prepare for the ideas.

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.govtech.com/fs/Cities-Should-Help-Bring-About-the-Smart-Car-Transportation-Tech-Leaders-Say.html