LANSING—The Michigan Strategic Fund Board approved a $700,000 Michigan Business Development Program grant to support an $11.8 million expansion at Ann Arbor-based May Mobility Inc. that the Michigan Economic Development Corp. predicted will create 100 engineering and technology jobs.
May Mobility, founded in 2017, is deploying autonomous shuttles to help people get where they need to go safely and easily. The company operates in several cities across the United States, including Detroit and Grand Rapids, by partnering with organizations and municipalities to offer transportation services through a turnkey shuttle service.
“With the support of the MEDC, May Mobility is able to grow our team during a crucial time in the race to develop safe, reliable autonomous technologies as we work to improve access to mobility solutions in cities across the country,” said May Mobility Founder and CEO Edwin Olson. “We are excited to work with MEDC to help make Southeast Michigan not only a great place for the auto industry, but also a leader in autonomy.”
This planned growth aligns with several of MEDC’s strategic focus areas, including supporting a business in the target industry of mobility and fostering high-wage job growth. Ann Arbor SPARK has offered to assist the company in finding candidates for the new positions. For information on careers with May Mobility, visit https://boards.greenhouse.io/maymobility.
In July 2019, MEDC’s mobility initiative teamed up with May Mobility, the city of Grand Rapids, and nine Michigan companies to form the Grand Rapids Autonomous Vehicle Initiative . Coordinated by Seamless, a business accelerator in Grand Rapids, the initiative placed May Mobility autonomous vehicles on Grand Rapids’ city streets to demonstrate civic infrastructure and operational capabilities of the rapidly growing AV market.
The coalition brings together enterprise and infrastructure to gather and analyze critical information with the goal of understanding the usage of autonomous vehicles in a city environment. The May Mobility fleet operates complementarily to the city of Grand Rapid’s existing DASH transportation fleet.
During the initial nine months of testing and deployment, May shuttles autonomously drove nearly 14,000 miles on the streets of Grand Rapids. The service is set to resume this fall with enhanced features for sanitation and rider safety.
Today’s announcement also builds on the launch last month of the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification, designed to maintain Michigan’s position as the global leader in producing and developing the next generation of transportation technologies. The new office is working across state government, academia, and private industry to enhance Michigan’s mobility ecosystem, including developing dynamic mobility and electrification policies and supporting the startup and scale-up of emerging technologies and businesses.
More at www.michiganbusiness.org.
