Ford takes quantum computing leap with NASA

Technology News | October 2, 2018

By Rich Pell

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Over the coming year, says the company, it will be working with NASA’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at its Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. It says it plans to use the quantum annealer hosted at Ames to see how it can apply the technology to complex problems that cannot be solved by today’s computers.

“In the scenario we’re testing with NASA,” says Dr. Ken Washington, Vice President, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, and Chief Technology Officer, “we’re exploring quantum computing’s ability to help commercial fleet owners more efficiently manage the total energy consumption of their large number of vehicles. The scenario involves designing criteria-based vehicle-to-route mappings for diesel delivery vehicles.”

This scenario – a generalization of the classic traveling salesman problem – involves a large number of complex variables. When working to design a scheduling system with multiple pick-up and drop-off spots, says Washington, any location that’s chosen will have an impact on congestion, time management, and people’s experiences.

Traditional computing methods allow the modeling of these options for a limited number of vehicles and locations, but the analysis quickly becomes intractable as the number of vehicles, relevant locations, and potential routes are increased. Quantum computing, however, can store more information in a quantum bit – or qubit – than can be stored in a traditional computer bit, and can process all of it simultaneously.

“Our work with NASA entails encoding all these options into qubits to simulate the efficiency of each to determine the best fit,” says Washington. “So in our scenario, all available options in terms of number of locations, density of locations, and route timing can be thought of as different states, or measurements. Because qubits can process so much information all at once, we believe such complex problems as fleet route planning can be solved faster relative to computing methods that rely on traditional bits.”

Apart from route planning and its application for autonomous vehicles, says the company, it believes quantum computing technology can impact a number of other areas as it evolves, including materials development, manufacturing, and battery chemistry optimization.

“Working with NASA creates an opportunity to learn more about the potential of quantum computing to identify quantum-level problems to ensure we know how to design the proper scenarios to put to the test,” says Washington. “Once we understand the right way to ask questions in a quantum framework, there’s no telling the power we’ll have to solve potential problems in the future as we work to transform our transportation systems.”

Ford Motor Company