Roamin’ Numerals: This Pi Day, Celebrate How Math Is Powering Self-Driving Cars

By John Rich, Chief Operating Officer, Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC

While Pi Day may seem like a made-up holiday, March 14 – 3.14 – actually provides us with an opportunity to recognize the important role mathematics plays in just about everything we do or interact with on a daily basis. For me, Pi Day also serves as an opportunity to appreciate the people who helped me understand and get excited about numbers and formulas.

As a kid, we don’t always see the profound impact our parents, teachers and role models are having on the person we ultimately become and the subjects we find most interesting. Hopefully, we have all had one or two people we can point to who positively shaped our lives.

For me, it was my dad. An astrophysicist and director of engineering for the Hubble Space Telescope, I learned to appreciate the importance of mathematics from him. My dad would take me to observatories and explain in incredible detail how telescopes worked, what we were looking at when we saw stars in the sky and how far away other planets were. Without realizing it, these conversations were capturing my imagination and steering me down a career path heavily reliant on math.

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About Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is a global company based in Dearborn, Michigan, committed to helping build a better world, where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. The company’s Ford+ plan for growth and value creation combines existing strengths, new capabilities and always-on relationships with customers to enrich experiences for customers and deepen their loyalty. Ford develops and delivers innovative, must-have Ford trucks, sport utility vehicles, commercial vans and cars and Lincoln luxury vehicles, along with connected services. The company does that through three customer-centered business segments: Ford Blue, engineering iconic gas-powered and hybrid vehicles; Ford Model e, inventing breakthrough electric vehicles along with embedded software that defines exceptional digital experiences for all customers; and Ford Pro, helping commercial customers transform and expand their businesses with vehicles and services tailored to their needs. Additionally, Ford provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. Ford employs about 174,000 people worldwide. More information about the company and its products and services is available at corporate.ford.com.