Detroit put the world on wheels and should be the place that takes the driver out of the driver’s seat, according to a coalition of Michigan business leaders and politicians.
The MICHauto group unveiled an initiative last week to promote Detroit and Michigan for development of a new generation of mobility, including self-driving cars. The coalition includes Ford executive chairman Bill Ford and General Motors chief executive officer Mary Barra.
“If you look at Europe, a lot of people look toward Germany as the place to make things,” Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder said in an interview. “I want Michigan to be viewed as the Germany of the United States, as the place to make things.”
The effort is a response to Silicon Valley’s growing automotive influence as companies such as Google and Apple develop driverless vehicles alongside electric-car maker Tesla Motors.
Michigan led the United States last year in connected-auto projects with 45, to California’s 31, the group said.
“Detroit and Michigan are in the cross hairs of some very talented innovators in places like Silicon Valley,” Doug Rothwell, president of Business Leaders for Michigan, a roundtable of top executives, said in a statement. “Michigan has to work quickly and cohesively to maximize our existing automotive resources in next-generation mobility.”
Snyder is concerned that his state is losing the public-relations war to Silicon Valley. That could cost Michigan thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investment if the coming generation of auto development shifts to California.
“Our biggest constraint compared to Silicon Valley is we’re crummy at marketing,” said Snyder, a Republican, in an April interview in Ann Arbor, Mich. “Much of the perception is Google and their car driving around Silicon Valley. We have exponentially more research going on within a few miles of here.”
Snyder, Bill Ford and other business and political leaders gathered last week at an annual policy conference on Mackinac Island, a vacation destination where cars are outlawed and people travel by horse-drawn carriage.
Snyder said that he has asked auto executives to do better at explaining what the industry offers for specialists in science, technology, engineering and math.
