Michigan sunk $67M into self-driving car test track. Now, some fear bankruptcy

• Michigan spent at least $67 million to buy and equip a smart-car test track called the American Center for Mobility
• The state has forgiven a $15 million loan to the company, and now documents say ACM can’t make payments on a $35 million state loan
• The auto testing site - once expected to generate 2,000 jobs - is expected to ask the state to forgive the second loan

YPSILANTI TOWNSHIP — Michigan made history at the sprawling Willow Run bomber plant during World War II, churning out more than 8,600 B-24 bombers that helped propel the Allies to victory.

State officials in 2016 predicted it would make history again, buying the 500-acre site and investing millions of dollars to convert it into a test track that would help the United States win the race to bring self-driving vehicles to highways.

“This world-class facility will put Michigan at the forefront of the autonomous movement to ensure we lead the way as the auto industry transforms into the mobility industry,” then-Gov. Rick Snyder said in November 2016 at the groundbreaking ceremony. 

Michigan has invested at least $67 million to launch the American Center for Mobility (ACM) as state-of-the-art proving grounds —  including an all-weather test track and space to build an R&D — focused on driverless and connected vehicles. 

Nine years later, Michigan has already forgiven one $15 million loan to the not-for-profit business and another $35 million one is in forbearance. 

The ACM plans to ask the state to forgive that loan and give the company the property, according to public records and documents obtained by Bridge Michigan through the Freedom of Information Act.

An audit completed in March shows the center has had two straight years of operating losses and may need to consider bankruptcy if the state doesn’t forgive the loan.

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Bridge spent weeks seeking clarity on the situation from ACM executives, board members and boosters. They did not return numerous messages seeking comment.

Otie McKinley, spokesperson for the Michigan Strategic Fund that provided the loan to ACM, provided few details but expressed ongoing support for the project.

“The American Center for Mobility remains a key component of the state’s overall efforts to remain the global epicenter of the mobility industry,” McKinley told Bridge. “The center remains required to repay the loan. Nothing has changed from that perspective.”

‘Good for the town’

The mobility test track is the latest reinvention for the site that covers a sparsely traveled industrial corner adjacent to the Willow Run Airport and the Wayne County border.

The lack of activity contrasts with the decades of manufacturing at the giant factory site that shifted from bombers to cars, first by Kaiser Fraser and in the 1950s by General Motors Corp.

GM employed thousands at its Powertrain factory, located across the road from another closed GM plant, Willow Run Assembly. Together, the Willow Run campus employed well over 10,000. 

The mobility plan emerged after GM declared bankruptcy in 2009. RACER Trust, established to clean up and redevelop sites formerly owned by the automaker, took possession of the abandoned Willow Run properties.

At the old bomber plant, the last few hundred workers walked out of the doors at the end of 2010. They left 5 million square feet of obsolete factory space where 42,000 people — one of them reportedly the original “Rosie the Riveter” — once assembled the bombers that helped America win World War II. 

“Willow Run is unique in its scale and place in US manufacturing history,” Elliott Laws, RACER’s administrative trustee, said in 2023.

The property was listed for sale, and most of the factory was demolished. Across the street, the other factory became a warehouse. Both had extensive pollution.

By 2013, Ann Arbor SPARK — the economic development group for Washtenaw County — mobilized support for the mobility plan, saying the state could “control” industry collaboration. “A world-class test facility will position southeast Michigan’s future in connected vehicle technology,” documents said. 

“There is an opportunity to create an industry asset so comprehensive and cutting edge that private industry will be obligated to bring jobs to the southeast Michigan region,” according to the plan, presented by Paul Krutko, SPARK CEO and both vice president and treasurer for the mobility site. 

The initial projection: Investing $90 million to buy and convert the factory site could create 7,800 jobs in the region, including about 2,000 at the site. 

The facility was expected to boost an Ypsilanti region that lost 14,000 auto manufacturing jobs between 2001 to 2014 and still has higher poverty rates and lower education levels than much of Washtenaw County. 

It was hard to see a downside and many thought “that it would be good for the town,” said Karen Lovejoy Roe, an Ypsilanti Township trustee and former township supervisor.

The enthusiasm pulled in support from the Detroit Regional Chamber and Business Leaders for Michigan, both of which still have representatives on the ACM board.

“Everybody really thought it was going to be a catalyst,” Roe said.

Shifting marketplace

The state’s investment in setting up ACM came at a time when few could imagine widespread autonomous vehicles on public roads or highways set up for vehicle-to-vehicle communication. 

The  executive committee of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation — which sets job-creation policy with the strategic fund, the MEDC’s public spending arm — made a $15 million start-up loan, including about $1.2 million to buy the property.

The Michigan Department of Transportation spent $17.6 million through 2018 as it reconfigured unused roads into the test track site. The state’s environmental office was a partner, too, providing testing and oversight.

The Michigan Strategic Fund’s $35 million loan was intended to develop ACM to the point where it could take ownership of the property, while repaying the state’s investment.  

Boosters said the plan had little risk since plenty of federal funding seemed assured and private companies vowed support. 

But the market was already changing, even as Michigan poured millions of dollars into the project.

In 2017, ACM was designated as one of 10 federally approved US smart mobility proving grounds that would share $20 million in federal funding. One year later,  the administration of President Donald Trump rescinded the designation and funding.

According to a statement at the time, the US Department of Transportation “recognizes that given the rapid increase in automated vehicle testing activities in many locations, there is no need for US DOT to favor particular locations or to pick winners and losers."

Private industry investment also changed rapidly as some companies pushed ahead and others — like GM and its Cruise development, which shifted from troubled robotaxi to personal-use vehicle research. 

Throughout, competition for time at test tracks was steep. Spinoff development that had been predicted around ACM failed to materialize.

The Ypsilanti trustee, Roe, remembered excitement in the township when Subaru, an early ACM client, planned a research and development center because of ACM proximity. 

Then, she said, it built it in Wayne County’s Van Buren Township. 

Changing uses

After just four years of operations, ACM in 2022 sought forgiveness on the state’s $15 million loan, a move that was allowed in the original contract. 

At that time,  ACM had collected $27.1 million from corporations, including $5 million each from Visteon, Toyota and Hyundai. Track operating revenue totaled $12 million over ACM’s first three years.

From 2022 to 2024, documents obtained by Bridge show that revenue did not substantially grow. Track earnings increased to $13.7 million; and overall revenue, subtracting the $15 million contributed by the state, reached $30 million.

Grant income — anticipated by the state to fund about $60 million in ACM costs at startup and grow from there — slid after 2021, from $20 million through that time to $3.4 million for the last three years combined.

Many of the early supporters of the ACM did not reply to Bridge’s requests for comment, including US Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, who facilitated two federal grants in 2024 totaling $4.8 million. 

A  $2 million grant came from Dingell’s 2024 community upgrades funding requests. The money, channeled through Ypsilanti Township,  is to be used for infrastructure like roads, utilities and storm sewers.

“This federal investment would allow ACM to develop its technology park, and build on the mobility ecosystem it has already developed with its testing and garage system,” according to the request.

Ypsilanti Township, meanwhile, awarded ACM what trustee Roe called a “hefty tax break” in the form of a tax-free Renaissance Zone. The center operates mostly tax free until December 2031. 

Looking ahead

McKinsey & Co. global consulting firm said 2023 was a tipping point for the autonomous-vehicle industry. Strong players grew, bringing robotaxis to several US cities and self-driving trucks to Texas highways strength. Others stepped back.

“Although leading players were able to successfully run and scale first commercial operations and increase their funding, others saw significant setbacks, stopped or reduced their operations, or exited the market entirely,” the company said in a report. 

“Regional expectations are shifting (and) timelines for autonomous-vehicle development are extending,” it said. 

That could affect test site use, said Sam Abuelsamid, vice president at Telemetry, an auto research firm.

“Simulation is becoming increasingly important,” he said, because many more tests can be accomplished in a shorter timeframe.  “You simply can't run enough real world tests with physical vehicles to do that.”

Attrition among test sites could be ahead, he added. 

“As the technology has matured, it's fair to say that you don't necessarily need as many of these types of facilities,” Abuelsamid said, “because at some point you do have to get off the track onto the real world.”

Over recent years ACM has been diversifying from connected and autonomous vehicles, even as partnerships — like with Toyota, whose banners fly at the entrance — continue. 

ACM expanded its mobility reach and revenue sources, managing the Detroit Smart Parking Lab for a collaboration involving Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock that researched autonomous valets among other projects. 

ACM also planned with state offices a green hydrogen fuel hub. One of Dingell’s grants funds an electric vehicle charging test bed.

As the need for testing changes, the state and others are exploring other uses for the mobility site.

Among the ACM options: “activities related to data management and data mining,” according to a 2022 contract between the Michigan Strategic Fund and Willow Run Arsenal of Democracy, the entity set up to manage the ACM property for the strategic fund.

While ACM officials wouldn’t comment, plans continue for ACM future endeavors, said Greg McGuire, managing director of early-stage mobility center Mcity at the University of Michigan. U-M was also a founding partner of ACM.

The pair are partners in the Accessibili-D Self-Driving Shuttle Pilot that began at Mcity before shifting to ACM, McGuire said. The initiative is working on establishing an autonomous vehicle shuttle service in Detroit to serve the elderly and people with disabilities. 

Further, McGuire said, “we expect to continue working with ACM on future projects, including a yet-to-be-announced aerial mobility expansion.”