A course correction at American Center for Mobility

Six months ago, the American Center for Mobility opened with much fanfare, as government officials and industry executives hailed the arrival of a proving ground for self-driving vehicles as a technical marvel and economic anchor.

Built on the grounds of a dilapidated factory in Ypsilanti, Mich., that saw its heyday making airplanes during World War II, the facility was remade for an autonomous age. In April, the mobility center opened a 2.5-mile highway loop and sketched plans to add places for test scenarios deemed too dangerous for public roads, a cyber-security center and more in future phases of development.

Those plans are now in flux as the center faces a turnover in leadership.

Since its grand opening, three top officials have departed. A search for a new CEO remains ongoing. In the meantime, Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation, has been serving as the organization's interim CEO and crafting plans that emphasize increasing revenue.

"We've got the basics, and now we're asking the industry what kind of environments they're interested in using that we don't have yet," Steudle told Automotive News. "An off-road area? Interest in a coast-down facility? Everything going forward will be driven by an industry board that lets us know what they're interested in using and renting. At the end of the day, we need to be building things that are rentable."

The stakes are high. Ford Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Hyundai America Technical Center, Adient Ltd. and Visteon Corp. are among the automakers and suppliers that have invested up to $5 million each on the project.

As self-driving technology emerged from places such as Silicon Valley and Pittsburgh in recent years, state officials conceived of the center as a centerpiece in their strategy to ensure that Michigan remains a relevant home for the next-generation auto industry. They have steered tens of millions of dollars in public funding to get the organization up and running and do not want to see that investment languish.

A blueprint is being revised in collaboration with the organization's industry advisory board, and part of its plans will emphasize building more office and garage space for automakers and other companies to rent on site. Eight short-term and six long-term garages are already in use, the latter under 10-year leases. Steudle says there's demand for more facilities, and he anticipates more will be built by the third quarter of 2019.

"One thing that we have accelerated here is the economic development component," he said.

The American Center for Mobility is a public-private partnership run by a nonprofit in conjunction with the state's Department of Transportation, the Michigan Economic Development Corp., the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor's SPARK business accelerator and Ypsilanti Township. Leaders have touted it as a way to ensure high-paying auto-industry jobs remain entrenched in Southeast Michigan.

The state approved $35 million for the nonprofit that controls the joint partnership for the first phase of construction. By the time future phases are complete, the organization expects to spend $135 million on the overall construction of the facility.

Seven companies, including Toyota and Visteon, paid $5 million apiece to be considered founding members of the facility. "Supporting" member Subaru and five other companies paid $2 million for ongoing use of the track. It's not just for traditional OEMs and suppliers. AT&T and Microsoft have been using the facility to advance next-generation automotive connectivity.

The facility is also leading an industry study on truck platooning and researching how autonomous driving technology may affect the nation's work force.

Despite the growing roster of companies using the mobility center, three people with direct knowledge of operations there said relationships between the leadership team and some of its external partners had frayed.

In April, Andrew Smart, chief technology officer, left the organization, and COO Laurel Champion exited in June, according to their LinkedIn profiles. CEO John Maddox departed in August, according to the organization, though he remains in an external consulting role.

While he did not address the nature of the relationships between the mobility center and others, Steudle separately said the organization would soon sign a memorandum of understanding with Mcity, the autonomous test track at the nearby University of Michigan, which articulates how the two organizations will work together.

The two facilities are intended to be complementary, with Mcity focused on early-stage testing and research and ACM dedicated to highway-speed testing and validation of technologies that are closer to reaching the marketplace.

"In the middle is where they collaborate together," Steudle said. "This helps continue that partnership and set some things in place going forward."

Beyond the internal changes, the U.S. Department of Transportation stripped the American Center for Mobility and nine other nationwide organizations of an Automated Vehicle Proving Ground designation last month when they rolled out the third version of their federal automated vehicle policy.

The designations were conferred in the waning days of the Obama administration, and policy experts have expressed doubt that they made much difference. But their removal perhaps signals an increase in competition for federal funding related to advanced transportation studies and projects as more regions view autonomous vehicles as a potential economic catalyst.

Steudle will retire from his post as director of MDOT at the end of October, but he will remain as the mobility center's interim CEO until a new one is named. A national executive search firm is leading the hunt for a new leader. That search remains in its early stages with January 2019 as a tentative target to have a new hire on board.

The right candidate should have both a startup mentality as well as experience in the automotive and mobility industries, Steudle said.

"I think it's going to be a mix of those things, and I don't think it can be heavy on one side," he said. "The important thing is a good blend, and chief to all of those, someone who understands how all the pieces fit together and can forge relationships to move things forward."