Stanford's new garage

Stanford University earlier this year consolidated its automotive research workshops into a single building on the edge of campus. Funded in part by Volkswagen (hence the name, the VW Automotive Innovation Lab, or VAIL), the building researchers work on projects with a variety of car and equipment manufacturers (Nissan, Bosch, Honda, etc.), as well as other partners like State Farm insurance.

My tour guide for this slideshow was Sven Beiker, executive director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford. See the Reporters' Roundtable interview with him.