Renault-Nissan Alliance opens bigger research center in Silicon Valley

The new center opened today in Sunnyvale, California. It will initially specialize in autonomous driving and connected cars, but will also begin opening research into other automotive fields soon.

The Nissan Research Center Silicon Valley (NRC-SV) will enhance the two automakers' global research capabilities through collaborative research with institutions in and around the Silicon Valley technology hub. The new center is part of Nissan's global strategy to expand and localize research and development in strategic markets and will collaborate closely with the company's NRC in Japan.

Initial projects at NRC-SV include research into autonomous vehicles, research into connected vehicle technologies and uses to tap into infrastructure and the computing cloud, and research into Human Machine Interface (HMI) to enhance experiences in both autonomous and connected vehicles.

Nissan Executive Vice President supervising Research and Development Mitsuhiko Yamashita during a visit to the new R&D center today said, "As we continue to expand our R&D capabilities throughout the world, we aggressively pursue our activities to create new values of mobility, by harnessing the latest information and communication technologies here in our new research center in Silicon Valley."

The new research center will replace the Mountain View office opened by the Renault-Nissan Alliance back in 2011 and allow them to house more employees, more projects, and full system prototypes for testing.

Nissan has continued aggressive expansion in the United States, with all aspects of vehicle design and engineering now taking place here. The company strives to continue its full-line manufacturing here in the U.S. as well as to be an efficiency leader through its Green Program.