Using Gorilla Glass on GT supercar

Ford Motor Company released company statements on technology and smart mobility milestones yesterday (15 December). The company has joined Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Honda in acquiring a permit to begin testing fully autonomous vehicles on public roads in California, United States, along with announcing expanding operations at its offices in Palo Alto, California. The company also announced that it is using software development services from a company called Pivotal, in new collaboration that leverages the software company's Cloud Foundry and Big Data Suite products. Finally, the automaker has teamed up with glassmaker Corning to employ its Gorilla Glass for use in the GT supercar's windshield, reducing the weight by more than 12 pounds.

On testing on California's public roads, Ford will use the fully autonomous Fusion Hybrid test sedans already in use. In its announcement, Ford described the move as "further advancement of Ford's 10-year autonomous vehicle development program and a key element of Ford Smart Mobility, the plan to take the company to the next level in connectivity, mobility autonomous vehicles, the customer and data and analytics". Along with announcing the expansion of its autonomous vehicle testing, Ford announced that its Silicon Valley research-and-development office, located in Palo Alto, California, has been expanded to employ more than 100 researchers, engineers, and scientists since January 2015. Ford says that 80% of the team were hired from the technology sector, while 20% are Ford employees from the US, China, Germany, and Australia and have automotive engineering and design expertise.

The company also said that projects in research at Palo Alto during 2015 include an autonomous vehicle virtual test drive system, which allows virtual interaction between an autonomous car and pedestrians; sensor fusion, to fuse together the information from autonomous sensors to create a 360-degree view of the car's surroundings, including street signs and pedestrians; camera-based pedestrian detection; and data-driven healthcare programmes, in which Ford is working the Riders for Health to collect GPS data on Ranger pick-ups and motorcycles outfitted with OpenXC technology to improve delivery of healthcare, vaccines, and medication to people throughout rural Africa.

Meanwhile, Ford's announced three-year strategic collaboration with Canadian software company Pivotal is designed to accelerate the digital transformation for enterprise, and will support Ford's development of mobile and user experiences. Leveraging Sync Connect technology − Ford's version of a smartphone app that provides remote access to vehicle features − the automaker says the collaboration is aimed at making the auto company a more agile software developer, addressing the digital evolution part of Ford's overall Smart Mobility plans. "As we grow to become both an automaker and a mobility company, having leading software development expertise is critical to delivering at the speed consumers expect. Customers today are used to frequent software updates on their mobile devices, and expect them with all technology. This collaboration with Pivotal allows for quicker vehicle software updates and an even better user experience for Ford customers," said Marcy Klevorn, Ford vice-president and chief information officer, in a statement. Ford says it plans to build a component of its new connected vehicle platform on top of Pivotal's Cloud Foundry, which is described as “one of the world's most powerful continuous-innovation cloud platforms", and to leverage Pivotal's Big Data Suite to analyze data in real time and over longer periods.

As part of the automaker's efforts to lightweighting, Ford and Corning have developed a version of the glassmaker's Gorilla Glass for use in Ford's GT supercar, which wowed audiences at the 2015 North American International Auto Show. The glass, used in consumer products including TVs and iPhones since 2007, was used to create a Gorilla Glass hybrid for automotive applications, and created a scratch-resistant windshield 12 pounds lighter than traditional glass. The glass will also be used on the rear engine cover. Compared with a traditional automotive laminated windshield with two layers of annealed glass around a clear, thermoplastic interlayer, the hybrid glass is multilayered, with an automotive-grade hybrid as a strengthened inner layer, advanced noise-absorbing thermoplastic interlayer in the centre, and an annealed glass as the outer layer. Ford says that the Gorilla Glass hybrid window is 25−50% thinner but with strength equal to or greater than the traditional laminate.

Separate from the Gorilla Glass announcement, Pittsburgh Glass Works (PGW) announced that it has developed specific new automotive glass glazing technologies for the GT, and will be the supplier to produce the glass. In a company statement, PGW said it was chosen to be the tier-one supplier "after more than a year of advanced development efforts that included installation of unique capabilities to fabricate aluminosilicate and soda-lime laminated hybrid constructions".

Outlook and implications

The Ford announcements, including ones from last week, are to reinforce the company's efforts at increasing technology and innovation in the automotive sphere. Many of the projects Ford is working on are not unique to the company, but its approach appears more holistic and less reactive than those of some of its counterparts. Ford is not alone in looking to improve use of lightweighting materials, increase software development or leverage the unique perspective of Silicon Valley in automotive development and research, but the company is positioning itself as among the most proactive in this.

Ford has been testing its Fusion Hybrid, outfitted with the necessary equipment and sensors for autonomous driving externally, in a similar manner to Google's test fleet of Lexus RX hybrid sport utility vehicles (SUVs), since 2013 and was also was the first automaker to test at Mcity, the Ann Arbor, Michigan, automotive proving ground supporting this type of research. Testing in California, particularly after the establishment of the Palo Alto office, was a next logical step for the automaker. Ford has also said that the project is in the advanced engineering phase, which for the automaker means working to make the technologies feasible for production, as well as continuing to test and refine the algorithms.

Ford is establishing a pattern of relative transparency regarding its plan for developing as a mobility company, as well as an automaker. Opening an office in Palo Alto is not untypical in the automotive industry, as General Motors, Honda, Nissan, and Mercedes-Benz are among automakers with a presence there. However, Ford has been forthcoming about its progress and the kinds of projects that its research-and-development team, headed by vice-president of research and advanced engineering Ken Washington, has been exploring.

Ford's Sync Connect, which the Pivotal collaboration is meant to improve, debuts on the Escape in spring 2016, to be followed with applications in other vehicles. Ford is not new to offering the ability to remote start or lock and unlock a vehicle, though the announcement regarding the Pivotal collaboration is a clear demonstration of the company's intention to develop and implement connected car apps better associated with software development than vehicle development. Ford has been proactive in this space since the first version of Sync, which had been launched with the aim that the software would be upgradable. Ford used that ability to address early bugs in the system, at one point sending USB sticks to owners so that they could upload the software updates directly.

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