About Us
The Automotive Innovation Facility houses the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab (VAIL) which provides a state of the art vehicle research facility and community space where interdisciplinary teams work on projects that move vehicle technology forward by focusing on human centered mobility solutions. High-profile Stanford projects accommodated in the building include research on drive-by-wire and driver assistance systems research by the Dynamic Design Lab of Chris Gerdes; research vehicles from the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab that use deep learning and computer vision to automate the driving process; research on the interaction of drivers with vehicles in the driving simulator by Larry Leifer and Wendy Ju from the Center for Design Research; and the Stanford Solar Car Project that designs, builds and races the latest vehicle competing in the World Solar Challenge in Australia. VAIL provides project, classroom and meeting space for students and researchers to prototype the cars of the future.
The facility is also home to our Open Garage Talk speaker series, held quarterly and open to the public. VAIL is located towards the western end of Stanford Campus at the corner of Stock Farm and Oak Road.