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Michigan Buys Site for Huge Autonomous-Car Test Facility
Plans to create a huge test complex outside Detroit for connected and self-driving cars moved ahead on Monday when Michigan finalized a $1.2 million deal to buy 311 acres for the facility.
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Plans to create a huge test complex outside Detroit for connected and self-driving cars moved ahead on Monday when Michigan finalized a $1.2 million deal to buy 311 acres for the facility. Developers tout the center as the world’s largest of its kind.
The site, located just east of Ypsilanti, was once the home of a sprawling World War II bomber plant and more recently a General Motors Co. powertrain factory. Michigan aims to transform the location into the American Center for Mobility. The nonprofit ACM is headed by John Maddox, assistant director of the University of Michigan’s Mobility Transformation Center in nearby Ann Arbor.
The site was acquired by the Michigan Economic Development Corp. from RACER Trust, which acquired the land from GM in 2011. Developers hope to break ground later this year and begin initial test operations by about the end of 2018.
Michigan already has committed $3 million to buy and operate the site. Another $17 million in state aid is expected within a month. ACM is pursuing an additional $60 million in federal funding.
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