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The Electronics Research Laboratory (The "ERL") is a division of the Volkswagen Group of America, with its headquarters in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto, California).

The ERL's slogan "Technology to the People!" indicates its mission: to leverage Silicon Valley resources for the advancement of the Volkswagen Group's products through technical knowledge and Electronics expertise.

The ERL has recently received media attention surrounding its joint victory with Stanford University in the DARPA Grand Challenge, a prize competition for driverless cars.

History
Founded in August 1998, the ERL began operations in October of that year with three employees. By December 2002, the lab had outgrown its Sunnyvale, California office and moved to its current location in Palo Alto, California. The current location provides a spacious office, workshop and prototyping areas for about 40 workers and supports ERL employees at Volkswagen Group of America's offices in Auburn Hills, Michigan and Herndon, Virginia.

Affiliation
The ERL supports all brands within the Volkswagen Group. This includes Volkswagen, Skoda, Bentley, and Bugatti as well as Audi, Seat, and Lamborghini. In addition to working with research and development teams in Germany, the ERL also supports the development of U.S.-specific features for the Volkswagen Group of America. Booo!!!!

Research "Teams" at the ERL
The ERL comprises four teams:


 * Driver Information and Technology Concepts (DITC) - Instrumentation, visualization systems
 * Human Machine Interface (HMI) - Interface concepts for driver assistance, infotainment systems
 * Connected Vehicle (CV) - wireless infotainment, collaborative intelligence, distributed computing
 * Testing Concepts and Validations (TC&V) - Testing procedures, specifications compliance

Headquarters
The ERL's headquarters are located in the middle of Silicon Valley at 4009 Miranda Avenue, Suite 150, Palo Alto, California. In 2008, the ERL will expand its operation to a new adjacent facility at 4005 Miranda Avenue, Suite 100.