Ford tries to disrupt itself in Silicon Valley

The area around Hillview Avenue in Palo Alto is dotted with well-known tech innovators: Xerox's PARC, Microsoft's Skype, VMware Inc. and HP Labs, among others. Amid the research centers and campuses of these tech stalwarts is another well-known company, but one whose name might seem somewhat out of place among these Silicon Valley trailblazers. Ford Motor Co. F, 1.32% is hoping to change that. Last year, the auto giant hung its shingle outside what it calls the Ford Research and Innovation Center, Palo Alto, as it seeks to embrace technology's disruption of its 100-plus-year-old business. With personal auto ownership as passe as telephone landlines to a new generation of consumers, electric-car powerhouse Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA, 1.27% -- also based in Palo Alto--upending the industry, and self-driving vehicles predicted in our future, Ford, like most auto makers around the world, is behind the proverbial eight ball. The automotive pioneer that developed the first mass produced, affordable car is experiencing the "innovator's dilemma," a conundrum faced by leading companies when a new, often cheaper, "good enough" technology breaks into its market dominance.