Shift Magazine - October 7, 2019 - 10

STARTUP
What motivated 3 companies

MORE THAN MOBILITY

Partners in Grand Rapids, Mich., AV project seek to transcend transportation
BY SEBASTIAN BLANCO

utting autonomous vehicles on
city streets can take a lot of work.
A project to deploy four
self-driving electric buses from
May Mobility in Grand Rapids, Mich., this
year required the involvement of Michigan
Economic Development Corp., the city
government and a half-dozen companies:
public utility Consumers Energy, auto
suppliers Faurecia and Gentex Corp.,
Rockford Construction, furniture giant
Steelcase Inc., and venture capital fund
Start Garden.
For MEDC CEO Jeff Mason, pulling
these entities together to work on the
Grand Rapids Autonomous Mobility
Initiative was a smart way to participate
in the changing transportation industry.
"For a number of years, we have seen
this evolution of the automotive industry
on the horizon," he said, whether that's
electrification or autonomy or the changing definition of mobility. "Given our rich
history with the automotive industry, we
think it's both important in terms of the potential for growth of this economic sector
and also in defense and protection of our
automotive base that we've created over
the past century in the state of Michigan."
The stakes are clear. Mason said 75
percent of automotive r&d in North
America takes place in Michigan, and 96
of the top 100 automotive suppliers are
headquartered in or have "significant operations" in the state.
This is why MEDC operates a mobility
initiative called PlanetM. It has supported
May Mobility, of Ann Arbor, Mich., since
2017. But it took Start Garden to bring the
Grand Rapids AV initiative to PlanetM's
attention. In 2015, Start Garden, of Grand

shift * october 2019

May Mobility says its shuttles in Grand Rapids, Mich., run on the most complex autonomous
vehicle transportation route in the world and the longest AV route in Michigan.

Rapids, launched a business accelerator
called Seamless, which operates the May
Mobility shuttle program in Grand Rapids,
with Start Garden connecting things in the
middle, said Mike Morin, a Start Garden
director.
This dense network of partnerships
pulls from different parts of the community and then pushes benefits to other
parts. "This isn't simply about mobility,"
Morin said. "It's about economic development and it's about how mobility
is impacting some of those other core
systems within a community around
wellness, around access to food, around
housing."
Morin has changed his driving habits
in downtown Grand Rapids, trading in a
$175-a-month parking space next to his
office for a $48-a-month space near a
shuttle stop.

"Michigan is a car-ownership economy," he said. "If this mode of transportation engages a new community in mass
transit, I think that's a huge win. The
notion of being able to change the architecture of the community and how we're
using the assets - mainly land - is kind
of the long-term win."
In Grand Rapids, the shuttles run daily on a regular route that May Mobility
calls the most complex AV transportation
route in the world and the longest autonomous vehicle route in Michigan. It covers
three miles and 22 stops. The shuttles
are full electric, seat five people and an
attendant, and are wheelchair accessible.
Grand Rapids is the fourth city in which
May Mobility has established operations. The company also has its vehicles
running in Detroit; Columbus, Ohio; and
Providence, R.I. ■

Shift Magazine - October 7, 2019

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