Volkswagen of America recently announced its $5.75 million-worth contribution to Stanford University to create the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab (VAIL), on the latter0s campus. The contribution will be used to aid the university0s new program aimed at supporting auto teaching and research. The lab will develop next-gen transportation solutions.”The VAIL will be a solid foundation on which Volkswagen researchers and Stanford scientists will be able to find new ways to explore automotive technology,” said Dr. Burkhard Huhnke, the executive director, Electronics Research Laboratory, Volkswagen of America, Inc. “The work done at VAIL will help to further develop the future of mobility and autonomous driving that we started with our partnership on the DARPA Grand Challenge vehicles, Stanley and Junior.”The VAIL and corresponding CarLab research and teaching program housed at VAIL, will help to accelerate automotive-related research on campus by increasing the opportunities for collaborations between VW and Stanford and by building a global community of academic and industrial partners committed to the future of automotive research, according to The Auto Channel.”The success of Junior and Stanley in the DARPA Grand Challenge events show that when Stanford collaborates with great partners in industry, such as Volkswagen, we can create significant new technologies,” noted Jim Plummer, the dean of Stanford Engineering. “Transportation is a vital part of life and our goal as engineers is to find innovative ways to meet important human needs.”The VW hubcap maker will donate $2 million to Stanford to build the VAIL and will provide $750,000 a year for five years to fund research and teaching activities in Stanford’s VAIL-based CarLab, an interdisciplinary research center.The Auburn Hills-headquartered automaker and Stanford University’s partnership can be reckoned back when the two iconic vehicles in the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Grand Challenge races with a first place win in the 2005 Grand Challenge and a second-place finish at this year0s Urban Challenge event in Victorville, CA.”The initial focus for VAIL will be vehicle safety, mobility and environmental performance,” added Plummer. “Already signed up for space in the facility are the research groups of computer science and electrical engineering Professor Sebastian Thrun, leader of the Stanford Racing Team that fielded Junior and Stanley; mechanical engineering Associate Professor Chris Gerdes, whose research group is studying cleaner combustion and advanced vehicle dynamics control; and communication department Professor Clifford Nass, whose research studies the psychology of making cars safer and more enjoyable.”The VAIL facility will be housed in a new 8,000 square-foot lot near the corner of Stock Farm Rd. and Campus Drive West. The facility will cover shared high-bay space with lifts, machine and composite shops, and meeting rooms, the reports said. Additionally, it will include outdoor test-driving space.”While the VAIL is the physical home for vehicle research, CarLab is the intellectual community it houses,” said Chris Gerdes, the director of CarLab. “The mission of CarLab will be to radically rethink the automobile in order to deliver unprecedented levels of safety and driver and passenger enjoyment.”"The work done at VAIL and in the CarLab will engage the entire Stanford community and a number of industrial partners and will generate research and teaching opportunities that are both interdisciplinary and real-world in nature,” said Plummer. “We look forward to having a state-of-the-art facility for vehicle research on campus, where students can help develop the next several generations of automotive transportation.”###For more information about your parts needs like www.vpartsonline.com/volkswagenhubcaps.html visit your trusted online source.Anthony Fontanelle is a 35-year-old automotive buff who grew up in the Windy City. He does freelance work for an automotive magazine when he is not busy customizing cars in his shop.

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