Published in the August 31 – September 13, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life

In the not too distant future, the sight of automobiles rolling along streets and highways without drivers will be a common every-day occurrence throughout the world. Silicon Valley companies like Google and Uber are working hard to make this technology safe and efficient. And two weeks ago Ford Motor Company and Baidu, Inc., a China-based search engine company, announced a combined $150 million deal with Morgan Hill-based Velodyne LiDAR t

Velodyne technicians place LiDAR on a Volvo during a test. Photo courtesy Velodyne

Velodyne technicians place LiDAR on a Volvo during a test. Photo courtesy Velodyne

o rapidly expand the design and production of LiDAR sensors, the devices that use lasers to measure distances accurately, a necessary component of driverless cars.

It’s exciting to consider that the South Valley region will play an important role in the transformation of transportation. With the deal with Ford and Baidu, Velodyne will expand its operations, potentially creating many new jobs in the region. It’s a sign that the South Valley is starting to ramp up the development of established companies — and start-ups, too — focused on encouraging the innovation that made many of the Silicon Valley companies north of us major players in the world of high-tech.

In Gilroy, United Natural Foods, Inc., opened a major distribution center earlier this year that uses advanced technology and brings in about 200 jobs to the community — including well-paying drivers, inventory control, safety, maintenance and sanitation jobs. The facility covers 450,000 square feet of space and was designed and constructed using sustainable practices to achieve a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold Certification.

We took a tour recently and were impressed with the energy efficiency features of the massive building. We were also impressed with the advanced computer technology that enables workers to gather items in the warehouses and put them in the right trucks to reach the right stores in UNFI’s distribution system. Gilroy’s location in the southern most reaches of Santa Clara County made it optimal for UNFI to expand its market reach into the Bay Area and build on its existing distribution network in California.

The South Valley region has many other well-established high-tech companies and some that use advanced technology systems. Among them are Anritsu. With its world headquarters in Kanagawa, Japan, the 120-year-old Anritsu Corporation has been doing business in Morgan Hill as Anritsu Company for more than 30 years. With more than 550 workers, it is Morgan Hill’s largest private employer. The company makes electronic test equipment serving a variety of high-tech customers in the Silicon Valley and around the world. Those markets include leading edge research and development firms such as Apple and Qualcomm, government, military and aerospace agencies. Anritsu test and measurement products, for example, are used by semiconductor companies in the process of making the chips that operate in cell phones. Anritsu products also are used in making and servicing the deployment stations at cell towers dotting the globe that transmit the signals linking cell phone users around the world. The Morgan Hill site specializes in microwave measurement devices and testing products. Workers here range in activities from the engineering design of these complex electronics systems to the specialized manufacturing of these devices on the factory floor.

A South Valley company that is on the cutting edge of hydrogen energy power development is Anaerobe Systems. Three decades ago, Mike Cox, owner of Anaerobe Systems, invented an improved anaerobic (without oxygen) chamber that cuts the testing time for potentially lethal infections from four or more days to as little as a few hours, thus saving countless lives. Cox initially started Anaerobe Systems in 1978 in Santa Clara where he operated the company for about 10 years before moving to San Jose. In 1997, he needed to expand his operations considerably and decided to buy his own building. He came to Morgan Hill and discovered a facility on Concord Circle which he calls “a perfect location” in the heart of Santa Clara County’s farming industry to research and develop a system using anaerobe microbes to produce producing energy from biodegradable vegetable matter. The company uses crop residue for bioenergy. When growing a tomato, for example, only about 10 percent gets on the consumer’s table. The other 90 percent waste material could be sent through Cox’s bioenergy factory where the anaerobic microbes turn it into hydrogen and organic fertilizer in a faster and far more sustainable process than traditional composting.

Cox now works with the South Valley’s George Chiala Farms, which once threw away about 140 to 150 tons of vegetable matter every year, to experiment in creating hydrogen using the once discarded waste. Their goal is to turn organic waste from food processing, cellulose and even lawn clippings into hydrogen and organic fertilizer.

The South Valley is only now starting to gain momentum in building a high-tech industry base. Farther north in Santa Clara County, the land to build is more expensive and the housing and traffic more congested. We enjoy a good quality of life in this region, with a balance of farmland, wilderness areas such as Henry W. Coe State Park and various county parks, and the communities of Gilroy, San Martin and Morgan Hill. We hope in the coming decades to see our job base grow with companies such as Velodyne, Anritsu, UNFI and Anaerobe Systems. They are demonstrating that the southern part of Silicon Valley can offer much to build a base of operations for established high-tech firms and start-ups in the future. And those companies will be able to build a base of jobs for local residents.