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Ford has made 400 new engineering hires, the company announced, and will create a new Research and Engineering Centre in Ottawa (yes, it\u2019s a \u2018centre\u2019 because it\u2019s Canadian). The majority of the hires come from BlackBerry, where they have extensive experience working with QNX, the operating systems that powers Ford\u2019s SYNC 3, and is used by a large number of the world\u2019s leading \u00a0automakers in similar capacities.<\/p>\n
The new hires more than double Ford\u2019s existing team of engineers focused on mobility and connectivity, and essentially mean that Ford now has a larger group dedicated to this area than do many smartphone makers, as pointed out to me by Ford\u2019s\u00a0Global Director for Electrical and Electronic Systems Engineering Chuck Gray.<\/p>\n
So what does a focus on mobility and connectivity entail for this new cadre of Ford engineers, exactly? Well, autonomous vehicles are one aspect, but the more immediate concerns for the group will be working on specific elements of in-car connectivity, device-to-device communication and network technology that will eventually prove very useful in fielding the first generation of consumer self-driving cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to have autonomy, the vehicle\u2019s got to be connected, it\u2019s just fundamental,\u201d Gray explained. \u201cThe vehicle itself, whether there\u2019s a driver or not, has to be communicating with the cloud for various reasons, so this group immediately is working on creating that connectivity spine or network upon which everything else can be built.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe majority [of hires from this announcement] are from BlackBerry,\u201d he said, regarding the decision to place their new facility in Ottawa and the talent they\u2019re drawing for the majority of this group of new employees. \u201cObviously they have deep skills, in embedded software, in mobile devices, in connectivity, and when you look at the subsets of products they work in \u2013 they work in RF, they work hardware, they work at the chip level, they work in operating systems, they have a renowned reputation for security and stability [\u2026] so it was a really good fit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Projects the group will focus on include in-car connectivity, as mentioned, as well as advanced driver assist features. The work of the group will also take place in additional engineering centers in Waterloo and Oakville in Canada, as well as North Carolina and Florida in the U.S. It\u2019s also reasonable to expect the company\u2019s investment in this area to grow over time, as it takes on an increasingly important role to automakers in general.<\/p>\n
Gray says that the company set its sights on \u201creally having full control over the software that shapes\u201d much of a driver\u2019s experience in the car, and sought out a talent pool that could support these ambitions, which led it to Canada\u2019s automotive systems engineering hub in Ottawa, where BlackBerry\u2019s QNX is based. Gray added that a focus on its own mobility engineering would help undergird revenue potential resulting from connected vehicles, as well as provide added potential for customers over the lifetime of their cars via convenience features like over-the-air software updates.<\/p>\n
Data is the key for carmakers in the modern market, and making sure you have an internal organization that can effectively own in-car software and connectivity services will be key to keeping ahead in that race, especially as the industry moves towards autonomous cars and more free time for in-car activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Ford has made 400 new engineering hires, the company announced, and will create a new Research and Engineering Centre in Ottawa (yes, it’s a ‘centre’ because it’s Canadian). The majority of the hires come from BlackBerry, where they have extensive experience working with QNX, the operating systems that powers Ford’s SYNC 3, and is used by a large number of the… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n\n<\/img><\/a>
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