Just ask Ted Serbinski, managing director of Techstars Mobility, a Detroit-based firm that invests in startups developing innovative mobility-related technologies and business models. When Serbinski moved from San Francisco to Detroit about six years ago, his Silicon Valley friends thought he was crazy, but he saw an exciting opportunity. As he puts it, “The Motor City is becoming the Mobility City.”

Seun Phillips, director of PlanetM, a partnership of public- and private sector organizations working together to develop and deploy the mobility technologies driving the future, agrees with Serbinkski’s description. “We are focused on attracting global mobility companies to Michigan, and there are many, many good reasons they are choosing to come here,” he says. Among them are:

  • Michigan ranks No. 1 in the nation in connected and automated vehicle projects.
  • It’s the leader in mobility-related patents, with almost 2,600 awarded over the past five years (a stunning 1,100 more than runner-up California).
  • By the end of 2019, the state will have more than 500 miles of roadways equipped with the infrastructure required for connected vehicles to communicate with each other.