Eight of the world’s top 25 corporate investors in research and development are automakers. The industry ranks third overall, ahead of software, aerospace and electronics manufacturers.
In fact, Ford and GM each invested more in R&D last year than Boeing, Amgen and Google. And 80 cents of every dollar AAPC’s members invest in R&D is spent here in the U.S. That’s one reason why a recent study by the National Science Foundation found that nearly one in 10 engineers and scientists employed in the private sector works for an automaker or an auto supplier.
All this investment in R&D has translated into unprecedented improvements in passenger safety, air quality, fuel efficiency and new products and features. Last year was the safest year on our highways ever recorded, despite the fact that Americans drove nearly 3 trillion miles. Auto emissions are 99 percent cleaner than they were in the 1970s, and our members’ vehicles will be 30 percent more fuel efficient in 2016 than they were just last year.
Today, American car buyers can choose from more than 150 hybrid, all-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and Chrysler, Ford and GM alone are putting millions of flex fuel vehicles on the road each year.
DETROIT – Every year, tens of millions of viewers in the United States watch The Oscars. For the next five years, Chevrolet will advertise its award-winning vehicles as part of this night of stars.
As part of its return to The Oscars, Chevrolet is looking to independent filmmakers to tell a story celebrating the simple, yet significant moments in life. During the broadcast praising the top movies in the industry, Chevrolet is providing aspiring filmmakers an opportunity to have their own moment of recognition. The selected commercial could air during The Oscars on ABC.
The road to becoming one of the innovators of American manufacturing wasn't always smooth for Henry Ford.
Ford tried and failed many times before establishing the Ford Motor Company -- which proved to have some longevity -- and producing the Model A, which first came off the assembly line 110 years ago this week. In a coincidence of round numbers, it was also 150 years ago this July that Henry Ford was born.
Just weeks after its chairman said the world of self-driving cars is closer than we think, Ford announced a program that uses an autonomous system for testing the durability of its cargo vans.
