Valeo Works Toward Autonomous Vehicles In Troy

TROY -- The sporty little Volkswagen convertible pulled up in the parking lot and stopped in front of a parking spot.

Then the driver got out, and things got real weird real quick.

The car started backing into a tight parking spot between two other vehicles. It came within a few inches of the vehicle on the right. Then the steering wheel spun to the right and the car moved forward, centering itself between the vehicles. Then the car backed up again, perfectly into the spot.

Valeo, the $14.5 billion French auto supplier with its American headquarters in Troy, is working on cars that practically drive themselves. The autonomous parking demonstration I saw Wednesday is another step toward that goal.

Valeos Comfort and Driving Assistance business divison develops ultrasonic, infrared, radar and laser sensors that make it all possible.

The sensors are used in blind spot warnings, lane maintenance warnings, forward collision warnings and more.

The sensors won't just make cars that drive themselves, they'll also make cars just plain handier -- an automatic rear gate lift system on an SUV, for example, that projects a spot of light on the ground if you're carrying the key. Step on the spot of light if your hands are full, and the rear gate rises automatically.

Valeo also makes rain, light and humidity sensors that power automatic lighting and wiper systems, and video cameras that provide back-up rear views and a simulated top-down view of your car and its surroundings.

Cars that drive themselves are closer than you might think. At last week's Center for Automotive Research Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, for instance, a prediction was issued that it will only take until 2017 or 2018 to see cars that are virtually autonomous.

"The problem has been solved," said W. Scott Pyles, Valeo's business group customer director in Troy. "Now the question is, how do we we do this on a mass market automotive level and put it on the road with a billion other people."

Pyles said autonomous driving will help boost safety in the face of several trends that otherwise point to more auto crashes and fatalities -- increasing road congestion, more aging drivers, more new drivers (particularly in the developing world) and more distracted driving.

Pyles and Valeo research and development manager Heinz Mattern said the company is now hiring, especially software and electrical engineers, and has about 70 open positions in Michigan.

More at www.valeo.com.