Moving the Motor City and beyond is taking on a new dimension with the addition of connected and autonomous vehicles. That is why this unique industry is celebrating and highlighting their work through Mobility Week Detroit.
Mobility Week Detroit, which takes place Oct. 7-13, includes six events in Metro Detroit. Its goal is to showcase Detroit as the center of autonomous technology and the headquarters for the industry’s brightest minds.
Events range from the Detroit Moves mobility festival in Spirit Plaza, to a Demo Day for rising TechStars Mobility startups, to a world research congress on the disruptive autonomous vehicle impact on health care. The week concludes with the MICHauto Summit, bringing the industry leaders and youth together to talk about automobility opportunities across the industry.
Partners for these one-of-a-kind gatherings of automotive might include Detroit Moves, PlanetM through the Michigan Economic Development Corp., Henry Ford Health System and Quicken Loans Community Fund. These groups share a common thread: They want people to connect with the autonomous technology movement through tours, demonstrations and educational events linked through the Mobility Week banner.
One of the most intriguing events for Mobility Week is highlighting the important conversations happening Oct. 7 to 9 during the 8th World Research Congress on vision and driving called “The Eye, The Brain & The Auto.”
Henry Ford Health System is the first system in the nation to put on a Research Congress related to autonomous vehicles, which is appropriate given the region’s investment in this technology.
A particularly important keynote speaker at the Congress is Dr. Larry Burns, a former vice president of Research at General Motors Company and is currently a consultant to the Google AV project. Dr. Burns’s book, “Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car – And How It Will Reshape Our World,” came out in late August and is already a best seller on Amazon.
Another interesting event is Techstars Demo Day, which takes place October 9, to see what the graduates of this mobility accelerator have created during their intensive three-month program in Detroit.
Demo Day is the largest mobility startup event in the world. More than 1,000 people fill the Detroit Film Theatre inside the Detroit Institute of Arts to cheer these entrepreneurs and hear their stories of growth.
At Detroit Moves, the October 10-11 event in Spirit Plaza seeks to showcase the people who are making things happen in the city and around Michigan. This outdoor festival celebrates how transportation solutions are coming to life in the region and enjoy some art, food and music at the same time, said organizers.
Detroit Moves allows participants to interact with mobility companies, meet changemakers, try some autonomous vehicles and even see the future of transportation with what has been described as a flying car.
This free and family-friendly two-day outdoor festival brings people together with mobility companies, industry leaders and the latest in technology at Detroit’s Spirit Plaza. Now in its second year, Detroit Moves is a showcase for connected and autonomous vehicles as well as the people who make these high-tech machines, organizers say. The festival also includes art exhibits, musical performances, food and family-orientated activities such as a mobility-themed scavenger hunt.
Additional activities include an educational village featuring STEM careers and area universities such as Wayne State and the Center for Creative Studies, a startup village with mobility-related startup companies and a social hour featuring food, beverage and entertainment from 5-7 p.m. on Oct. 11. Some exhibitors included May Mobility, which has an autonomous transport that takes Bedrock Detroit employees around the downtown core, as well as MoGo, Maven, Chariot, Airspace and America’s Automotive Trust.
On Oct. 10, the MICHauto Summit will explore the region’s “automobility future.” The event, presented by MICHauto and the Detroit Regional Chamber, is a one-day summit tells the story of Michigan’s automobility future with keynote speakers from Toyota, Ford Motor Company and Inteva Products as well as, conversations with mobility leaders. The day centers on conversations about how the state’s automotive industry is leading the way in terms of global innovation.
