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Greenhouse for cleantech

Silicon Valley is transforming from an IT hotbed to a worldwide mecca for environmental and energy technology. Amidst all the green idea foundries, Audi is conducting research into the long-term future of efficient mobility.

COPY/STEFFAN HEUER

The new building on the campus of the elite Stanford University in California appears at first glance to be a simple car workshop. Roughly 800 square meters of workspace, seven spots with pits and jacks, and a few meeting rooms in between. But looks can be deceiving. The green future is being assembled here bolt by bolt and line by line of code: autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence for low-emissions navigation and other exciting cleantech ideas. Stanford’s CarLab brings sociologists together with software engineers and solar technicians; robotics experts with engine developers. The think tank demonstrates how closely academics, pioneers and corporations work together in Silicon Valley. “Everyone knows everybody else and is curious – it’s a constant cycle,” says Valley expert Paul Saffo. CarLab, established with the support of Audi, is a symbol of the green evolution in Silicon Valley. The conurbation between San Francisco and San Jose has been considered an IT hotbed for decades. However, bold ideas for new environmental and energy technologies have been ripening in the shade of the computer and Internet industry. Projects range from computer-designed microbes for new biofuels to ultra-thin solar cells and software to make the power grid or the flow of traffic more efficient.

In the middle of this green technology mecca, the Volkswagen Group operates an internal think tank dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the mobility of tomorrow. The Electronics Research Lab (ERL) in Palo Alto employs around 50 engineers and researchers searching for new ideas and innovation partners for Audi and the other Group companies. “The people here invest in ideas, not finished business plans, even if the chances of success are only 1:20. The willingness to take risks leads to astonishing innovations,” says the lab’s director, Dr. Burkhard Huhnke. “We want to get in on this cycle as soon as possible and drive it forward.” One important project at the lab located in the immediate vicinity of Stanford is the “Audi Clean Air” research program that was established in 2007 as a multi-year collaboration with Stanford University and the University of California (UC) campuses at Berkeley and Riverside. A team under Riverside professor Matthew Barth is working together with the ERL on navigation systems which aim to reduce emissions and fuel consumption without significantly extending driving time. Barth has developed an algorithm that processes consumption data from 15 years of laboratory tests with current road information. The program can suggest an appropriate “green route” in just a few seconds.

Coupled with this is the project for intelligent engines at UC Berkeley under the direction of Professor Karl Hedrick. The software can look three kilometers ahead and uses information about the route, change in elevation, the current flow of traffic to set the optimal torque and best speed using the vehicle’s adaptive cruise control. Both innovations can each reduce fuel consumption by between five and seven percent, and according to Hedrick are just the first of a number of efficiency improvements still to come. The two academics next want to address green navigation and engine control on smaller streets. In contrast to expressways, there is little real-time data available for urban and interurban roads, but these routes also harbor substantial savings potential once vehicles can communicate with each other and traffic signals, for example. Just as important, if not more so, is the development of new, more powerful batteries and the corresponding software for the electric vehicles of the future. Silicon Valley is very fertile ground for innovation in this field thanks to prominent startups and the existing technical expertise from the PC industry. An internal ERL team has been working since early 2009 on the development of a new battery pack for the Audi e-tron concept car, for example. Besides green technology, the engineers in Palo Alto who develop for Audi are also very interested in the people behind the wheel. Together with Stanford, they have developed a self-steering Audi TTS with which they hope to fully exploit the potential of the driver assistance systems. It is hoped that the technology will later be able to accept route instructions, such as to drive into a parking garage.

Steffan Heuer is the U.S. correspondent of the business magazine brand eins. He lives in San Francisco.