Little more than two months after its public debut with great promise, the American Center for Mobility provided a broad sampling of demonstrations selected to prove its worth and lead. [1,2]
Despite being located just over fourteen miles east of Saline — all but a straight shot on a combination of Michigan Avenue and Interstate 94 — most people know little or nothing about it. Of those, fewer still likely think they should. Insistant references to it as site of the old Willow Run B-24 bomber plant hasn’t helped matters. [3]
In this case, it’s simply important to know that this site was developed to accomodate the ingress and egress of incredibly large work forces in service to the manufacturing of airplanes for Ford Motor Company, then in the end, transmissions for Hydra-Matic Division of General Motors. Outside of production buildings, roadways were built to support movement of an excess of 42,000 employees at peak in two shifts. This infrastructure would be cost- and time-prohibitive to recreate today from scratch. [4,5]
That’s what provided the foundation for a public-private partnership formed to repurpose it into the leading of only ten United States Department of Transportation nationally-designated proving grounds for automated and connected vehicles. In addition to the broadest imaginable variety of road structures, grounds, and, yes, weather conditions, it provides layered highway overpasses and long tunnel throughways that maximize challenges for artificial intelligence and communication systems. [6]
During a brief overview presentation on June 14, American Center for Mobility Chief Innovation Officer Soraya Kim delineated the three pillars of work here. The first is to provide a common ground for testing and validation. The second is to support evolving standards development. The third is educational, which largely means understanding the impact of changing mobility horizons on the workforce — as previously covered by Saline Journal in terms of both Washtenaw Community College initiatives and emphasis by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. [7,8]
“We’re not here to pick winners and losers,” Ms Kim emphasized. “We’re here to help accellerate the independent work and collaboration of others. We have work spaces available for them to use on a long-term basis or for just one day.”
Ann Arbor SPARK was instrumental in making this well-organized survey of offerings available as part of its “a2 TECH 360” program. Transportation was provided for most participants between Ann Arbor and Willow Run where leading eight leading vendors provided brief introductions to their work. One such company was CIMCON Lighting, which talked smart illumination for downtowns. [9,10,11]
Do street lamps need to be ‘smart’? Representatives of CIMCON persuasively argued that they do. They described common situations that one could readily imagine right here in Saline: Lights that operate on a regular schedule every weeknight, except on Thursdays during the anticipated Summer Music Series. But not when adjusted for MIS events. And sudden changes to weather. Or when first responders might be called. [12,13]
The excursion topped off with a tour of the roadways themselves on the five-hundred-plus-acre American Center for Mobility campus. This included a demonstration by where two Visteon project vehicles communicated with one another and infrastructure to navigate a pre-planned highway course. It could have given the impression of being on a science fiction movie set — only everything on those highways really happened.
In the end, it wasn’t simply that the bar had been significantly raised from early April to mid-June, but that so many of the seemingly disparate pieces appeared so purposefully fit together in this place.
References
- “American Center for Mobility opening at Willow Run touted as crucial for autonomous future” Dustin Walsh (April 4, 2018) Crain’s Detroit Business.
- American Center for Mobility (home page).
- “B-24 Liberator Willow Run Assembly Plant” Tom Dozier (July 31, 2009) YouTube.
- “1941: Land cleared for Ford’s Willow Run plant” (March 28, 1941) History.
- “The Arsenal of Democracy” Save The Willow Run Bomber Plant.
- “In AV testing, American Center for Mobility looks to maintain area’s ‘spirit of innovation’” Chris Teale (June 20, 2018) Smart Cities Dive.
- “It’s Important to Understand What Being a “Smart City” Means to Saline, Part 2” Dell Deaton (April 16, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “Michigan Governor Took Center Stage in Detroit This Month To Detail Mobility Partnerships Already In Motion” Dell Deaton (June 21, 2018) Saline Journal.
- “a2 TECH 360” Ann Arbor SPARK.
- “Test center gives glimpse into world of autonomous vehicles” Dana Afana (June 21, 2018) mLive.
- CIMCON Lighting (home page).
- “Summer Music Series” Saline Main Street.
- Michigan International Speedway (home page).
- Visteon (home page).
- “Visteon Partners with American Center for Mobility as Founding Member, Driving Development of Autonomous Vehicles” Jim Fisher (November 13, 2017) Visteon.
