Chris Gerdes is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus at Stanford University, and Co-Director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford (CARS). His laboratory studies how cars move, how humans drive cars, and how to design future cars that work cooperatively with the driver or drive themselves. He can often be found at the racetrack with students, trying out their latest prototypes for the future.

Vehicles in the lab include X1, an entirely student-built test vehicle; Niki, a Volkswagen GTI capable of turning a competitive lap time around the track without a human driver; and Marty, our electrified, automated, drifting DeLorean.

Gerdes' interests in vehicle safety extend to ethics and government policy. He helped develop the US Federal Automated Vehicle Policy while serving as the first Chief Innovation Officer of the US Department of Transportation and is also a Safety Advisor to Ford Next.

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