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Inside Honda's ghost town for testing autonomous cars

On the edge of the San Francisco suburb of Concord, California sits a ghost town. Dilapidated buildings and cracked roads are framed by overgrowth and slightly askew street signs. The decommissioned five acre portion of the Concord Naval Weapons Station that once housed military personnel and their families is now home to squirrels, jack rabbits, wild turkeys and Honda's mysterious testing lab for autonomous vehicles. This former town within a Naval base – now dubbed "GoMentum Station" – is the perfect testing ground for Honda's self-driving cars. An almost turn-key solution to the problem of finding somewhere to experiment with autonomous vehicle inside an urban area. Thanks to the GoMentum Station, the automaker has access to 20 miles of various road types, intersections and infrastructure exactly like those found in the real world. Just, you know, without all the people getting in the way. While the faded lane markers and cracked asphalt might initially make it difficult for the car to figure out what's going on around it, that's exactly what you want when training a self-driving system. Many roads in the real world are also in dire need of upkeep. Just because autonomous vehicles are hitting the streets doesn't mean the funding needed to fix all the potholes and faded lane markers will magically appear. The real world doesn't work that way and the robot cars that will eventually make our commutes less of a headache will need to be aware of that. Plus, it's tougher to train a car to drive downtown than to barrel down the highway at 80 miles per hour. A company is going to want to get as much practice as possible. While semi-autonomous driving on the everyone-going-the-same-way-at-a-constant-speed freeway is already a reality, navigating in an urban environment is far more complex. If you've driven on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago or Seattle you know that driving downtown takes far more concentration than cruising down the interstate. With all that in mind, Honda's tricked out Acura RLX did a good job during an (admittedly very controlled) hands-free demo. It didn't hit either of the pedestrians walking across its path. It stopped at stop signs and even maneuvered around a mannequin situated in the middle of the road. The reality is, watching a car drive around the block and safely avoid stuff is boring. Not to metion, Google has been doing this for a while in the real world.

Honda spinning off Acura as stand-alone division in bid to wake up brand

Every major automaker has a different way of relating between its various divisions and brands. At Volkswagen, for example, the individual brands seem to operate with a large degree of autonomy. Under the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the two units share a common chief executive, but little else. The relationship between Honda and its luxury division Acura has always been rather close, but that's all about to change.
American Honda Motor Company has always handled sales and marketing in the North American market for both the Honda and Acura divisions, but new reorganization plans call for the two units to be separated under their own direction. Leading the Acura division will be Michael Accavitti, who moves into the position from his role as Senior Vice President for Auto Operations at American Honda. The Honda division will meanwhile be taken over by the current head of Acura sales, Jeff Conrad.
Both will report to John Mendel, the current executive vice president of the Automobile Sales Division that is being rebranded as the American Honda Auto Division. Unlike rivals Lexus and Infiniti - two brands that Acura beat to the market - Honda barely markets its luxury brand outside of North America. Its overseas presence is felt only in China, though we've yet to receive word on how the reorganization might effect that market - or for that matter, any potential of expanding into others.

Check out Honda's sweet stop-motion 'Power of Dreams' ad

Television advertising doesn't just have to be the necessary evil that pays for the shows that you want to watch, and Honda is absolutely proving that with a new two-minute commercial titled Paper. Using stop-motion animation and a heap of illustrated cutouts, the spot showcases what the Power of Dreams motto really means. It runs through highlights like the success in racing, automotive development, Asimo, the HondaJet, and even lawnmowers. The result of all that hard work is spellbinding. The entire two-minute spot already aired during a few NFL games, and doing that was a serious investment. According to Ad Age, during the time that the ad ran the estimated cost per 30 seconds was $300,887. Honda is also prepping a minute-long version for TV, but you can enjoy the whole thing right now in the video, above. HONDA BRINGS 'THE POWER OF DREAMS' TO LIFE WITH TWO-MINUTE COMMERCIAL CREATED BY STOP-MOTION ARTIST AND INFLUENCER PES Elaborate Paper-Flipping Technique Artfully Tells the History of Honda Honda Brand Marketing Tone — Simple, Clever and Emotional — Will Carry Through Across Upcoming Advertising to Help Build a Long-Term Emotional Connection with Consumers Sep 21, 2015 - TORRANCE, Calif. -- Capitalizing on Honda's established, strong brand identity and its core belief in "The Power of Dreams," the company is launching a two-minute commercial, "Paper," during CBS Sunday NFL on Sunday, Sept. 20. After months in the making, thousands of hand-drawn and -colored illustrations from multiple artists provide the platform for an intricate paper-flipping journey to beautifully show Honda's history and range of mobility products. "The goal is for the marketing itself to become a demonstration of Honda thinking and all the people that touch our wide range of products along the way," said Tom Peyton, Assistant Vice President of Marketing for American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "This commercial stands for the courage and conviction to imagine and make dreams a reality and speaks to Honda's innovative nature and respect for personal achievement and contributions." "The Power of Dreams" philosophy speaks to Honda's belief that drives the company's R&D and diverse array of advanced-technology products, and to the determination to bring them to market. This rejuvenated approach to overall brand marketing is the sum of Honda's best thinking and could only come from the company's years of design and innovation.