Michigan to Start a Year-Long Autonomous Vehicle Trial This Week

July 26, 2019

William Kucinski

Michigan residents will soon have the opportunity to hop in an electric self-driving autonomous vehicle (AV) and post about their experiences on social media. The Grand Rapids Autonomous Vehicle Initiative (AVGR), with runs from Friday, July 26 until July 2020, is inviting the public to test self-driving public transportation for free.

AVGR – a coalition of nine Michigan companies, the city of Grand Rapids , and state of Michigan – is the first of its kind, bringing 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 fleet of AVs, sourced from AVGR member company May Mobility , will operate alongside the City’s existing Downtown Area Shuttle (DASH) bus fleet and the public can hail an AV ride at any DASH West stop.

William Kucinski is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..