MACKINAC ISLAND – A new initiative
brings together the state, universities, businesses and automotive companies to
build and promote Michigan’s efforts to develop a new generation of
high-technology cars including self-driving and connected vehicles.
Michigan already leads the nation in
research and development projects on self-driving vehicles, connected cars, new
fuel technologies, Detroit Regional Chamber President Sandy Baruah told a
roundtable at which the Michigan Mobility Initiative was announced. While most
of the world’s attention has been on developments in California – through
Google, for example – and Europe, there are a significantly more development
projects in Michigan than any other place.
According to MICHauto, which is an
initiative of the chamber to help build the state’s automotive industry, there
are 45 projects in the state on connective vehicle projects. California has the
second highest number of projects with 31.
But the field is growing more competitive
and Michigan must take steps in order to stay on top in the field.
The initiative announced Wednesday
is intended to use the state’s automotive-related resources to build on those
current resources, develop the state’s physical infrastructure to meet the
needs of technological developments on vehicles; and ensure both the state’s
K-12 education and colleges and universities can teach and train individuals to
both develop and work on the new-technology vehicles.
Developing the new vehicles
represents not just technological changes but cultural changes as well,
speakers said, as individuals, especially younger people, are interested in
resources that can be both connected and collaborative as well as individual
and autonomous, such as shared vehicles as well as vehicles that can travel on
their own.
As part of the initiative, the
Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Transportation,
Business Leaders for Michigan and the University Research Corridor (which
involves Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State
University) will lead the effort and recently released a map showing 28
existing facilities across the state developing the new technology vehicles.
Transportation Director
Kirk Steudle said the state is involved in a program to develop connected
technologies over some 120 miles of roads in metro Detroit and has been involved
in the development of M-City, an experimental village at the University of
Michigan that will open in July with autonomous vehicles and a fully automatic
traffic signal system.
“We need to be in place to
reinvent how people move,” Steudle said, “And we have to do it now before somebody
else steals our lunch.”
This story was published by Gongwer
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