Nissan has opened a new advanced research center that will initially focus on autonomous driving and connected car technologies in Sunnyvale, Calif., in the state’s Silicon Valley area.

Called the Nissan Research Center Silicon Valley (NRC-SV), the automaker said this facility is part of its global strategy to expand and localize research and development and will take on responsibilities for select roles in collaboration with Nissan Research Center in Japan.

The key areas teams at the center will focus on include researching autonomous vehicle technology, researching vehicle technology that allows vehicles to connect to infrastructure and the Internet, and human machine interface research.

Nissan and its corporate partner Renault originally opened an office in Mountain View, Calif., in 2011. The teams from that office will now continue their work in the Sunnyvale office.