Self-drive tech
that has Detroit
motoring again
W
hen Jessica Robinson
moved to Detroit
from San Francisco
five years ago, she
sold her car. “It was a
huge quality of life
choice. I walk to work, I bicycle, I have
a Vespa that I ride around. I was able to
buy my first home here, which I never
would have been able to do in the Bay
Area,” she says.
Robinson’s organisation, the Detroit
Mobility Lab, aims to tempt tech talent
towards Michigan. Its base is in a
downtown WeWork, a trendy office
with the Silicon Valley company’s
trademark glass booths and shared
working spaces. Here, taxi app Lyft has
an outpost, as does Bosch, as well as
many smaller start-ups.
Once synonymous with decline,
poverty and crime, Detroit is now
home to hipster hotels, a buzzy
restaurant scene and a slew of start-ups
working on self-driving cars, air taxis
and the tech that powers them. Electric
scooters dot the pavements and it has a
shared bicycle scheme, shiny new
buses and a freshly launched mobile
app for public transport.
Ford, the company that 100 years ago
made Detroit the centre of the
automotive world, is once again
overhauling the Motor City. Last year it
received a $209m (£172m) tax break to
buy and redevelop vast swathes of
property including the abandoned
Michigan Central Station, which last
saw an Amtrak train in 1988.
The city declared bankruptcy in
2013, brought low by mismanagement,
overstaffed public services, a huge
public-sector pensions bill, endemic
borrowing, population decline and
falling tax revenues.
Its debts mounted to $18bn, its
murder rate was the highest in the US
and its population had plummeted
from more than a million in 1990 to less
than 700,000 in 2013. During thedecision. A Detroit native, he
discovered after the factory location
was announced that his great-
grandfather worked in the same
building, back in 1926.
“He was attracted to being here at
that point in time because of the
opportunities that this innovation
created, and I’m back here after being
gone for a long time, for similar
reasons,” he says. “It’s not about
transferring or shuffling people
around. It’s about creating new jobs
and creating opportunities here, and
having Detroiters and people from
Michigan with the first shot at that.”
Self-driving car companies want
data, and Detroit is also a haven
because of the wide variety of streets –
and behaviours – that are found here.
On a ride downtown in one of Ford’s
cars fitted out with a self-driving
system developed by its Pittsburgh-
based partner, start-up Argo AI, we
encounter roundabouts, one-way
streets, illegally parked cars and
pedestrians wandering into the middle
of the road without the right of way.
The only company actually putting
the public in its cars here is local firm
May Mobility, which takes the staff of
property management firm Bedrock on
a short 800m route around part of the
downtown area in its six-seat electricshuttle. The company also runs shuttles
in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Columbus
in Ohio and Providence, Rhode Island.
This Detroit service is “probably one
of the last routes that will become
safety driver free, because it’s at the
very upper end of the difficulty
spectrum. Just a hellish route,” says
chief executive Edwin Olson.
“But other routes we can imagine
doing without a safety driver in thenext 12 to 18 months.”
Despite the engineering history of
the area, there’s still a serious skills
deficit. One problem is that for young
people, traditional automotive has lost
its sheen, says Robinson.
“They’ve seen parents,
grandparents go through some sort of
boom and bust a couple [of ] times, at
least. So as they think about their own
careers, they’re like, well, maybe I’ll
pick something a little bit more stable.”
Half an hour’s drive from the city,
Washtenaw Community College, a
sprawling campus with 20,000students, is trying to change that. In
2015 it received a $4.8m grant from the
state of Michigan, which it used to
overhaul its classes based on what local
businesses said they needed.
Students, many of whom are already
working in the industry (the average
age in this department is 27), learn in
rooms full of state-of-the-art
equipment, including 3D printers and
robotic laser cutters and welders,
which are laid out in the same way as
real factories. They also study
cybersecurity and software
programming, as well as how to fix
sensors and connected car systems.
It’s because of these skills companies
like Humanising Autonomy are coming
to Detroit. The British start-up, which
analyses behaviour to help drivers, and
eventually autonomous vehicles,
predict what pedestrians will do, is
opening an office in the city.
“San Francisco is great for
innovation labs and new technologies.
But if you actually want to integrate
your technology into a commercial or
production-type product for
automotive, Detroit is really the place
to be,” says co-founder Leslie
Nooteboom. The company is a graduate
of local mobility-focused accelerator,
TechStars, which offers start-ups
mentorship and networking. Its 44alumni have raised more than $80m
since 2015.
“Everyone wants to help each other
grow and be better and bring the city
back to life, which is different than
other start-up hubs where it’s more of a
competition,” says Nooteboom. “[In San
Francisco] everyone is trying to fight
for the funding, and you don’t want to
give anyone a finger because they’ll
take an arm.”
The worry is what happens if only
those who come from outside reap the
rewards. There are anxieties about
gentrification and about whether the
city’s black population is being pushed
out. City officials say Detroit has been
trying to avoid this with programs such
as an agreement with Fiat Chrysler that
residents would get priority for almost
5,000 new jobs at a new assembly
plant, due to open next year.
“Detroit does not want to be San
Francisco,” says Robinson. “What
makes this a truly special place is we
have families, communities and
neighbourhoods that have been here
for generations now.
“They love this place. Hard workers,
fighter spirit, the music and the design,
and food, that’s what makes Detroit
special. And if the whole community
doesn’t come along in this, then we lose
what the Detroit flavour is.”City was famous for
Ford, then for urban
decay ... but now its
autonomous vehicle
start-ups are thriving,
finds Olivia Rudgard
ILLUSTRATION: TOM BROOMspring of 2009, at the height of the
financial crisis, General Motors and
Chrysler, two of the city’s biggest
employers, both declared bankruptcy.
Now, near Ford’s 1.2m square foot
site in Corktown, the millennials are
moving in. Along the main road, wine
bars and noodle restaurants sit beside
garages and warehouses.
Sherif Marakby, president and CEO
of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, admits
that the city can be a hard sell for
workers from New York, California and
Seattle who are familiar with the old
stories about Detroit. “On the phone,
it’s more challenging than bringing
them here. So we try, we spend time on
the phone to get people to come to
visit, just come and see it for yourself.”
Around half of his staff working on
the new autonomous vehicles are new
to the industry, with less than a year
working for the company, and half are
veterans. Middle-class families have
historically elected to live in Detroit’s
suburbs rather than in the city proper.
The newbies are changing that, he says.
“People that are coming from out of
town, who don’t have a place, a lot of
them choose to live in the city. Many of
them choose not to have a car,” he says.
Downtown, near the Detroit River, a
pedestrianised square has been
reclaimed from cars and is full of local
workers on their lunch break. Across
the street, an expensive health food
shop opened just six weeks earlier.
But Detroit is huge, around 140
square miles, and outside the centre,
signs of its troubled past are apparent.
Boarded-up houses and empty plots
still dot residential streets, interspersed
with beautiful clapboard homes
painted in bright colours.
Both GM and Ford have let
thousands go from their factories.
Though some employees were offered
work at another plant, which may be
elsewhere in the country, many jobs
have been moved to China or Mexico.
Into the fray comes Silicon Valley
company Waymo, a Google spin-off
widely considered to be the most
advanced on the path of creating a
viable self-driving car. Patrick Cadariu,
its head of vehicle supply chain
operations, says 400 jobs will be
created in its new factory, which
Waymo will use to kit out electric
Jaguar cars with its self-driving tech.
There’s no doubt that setting up shop
in Detroit, the car-loving heart of a
car-loving country, is also a good PRUber has new UK boss at wheel
with London licence in balance
By Hannah BolandUBER has hired a new UK boss
amid speculation that it is struggling to
secure a long-term licence to operate
in London.
The taxi app said Melinda Roylett
would be taking up the role of its gen-
eral manager for the UK and Ireland,
joining from payments technology pro-
viders Square where she had worked as
the head of Europe.
Uber said her experience working
“for highly regulated companies”
would be “invaluable”.
The Silicon Valley business has been
without a UK head since May, when
Tom Elvidge left the company to take
up a role at office rental company
WeWork.
Ms Roylett was named as the new UK
chief as rumours swirled that Uber
may, yet again, face hurdles in getting
its licence to operate in London. Its
existing licence runs out next month.
According to Sky News, Uber is
unlikely to be granted a long-termlicence by Transport for London, and is
instead expecting to be granted a tem-
porary extension.
It would come as a blow for the busi-
ness, which has sought to draw a lineunder various controversies over the
past few years and reposition itself as a
more responsible firm.
TfL first raised concerns over Uber
in 2017, when it rejected its licence
renewal request amid concerns that
the company was not “fit and proper”
to operate in the city.
After having introduced changes to
its app, including ways to limit drivers’
hours and new safety measures, Uber
was granted a probationary licence.
That runs out on Sept 25 and Uber has
reportedly submitted an application to
renew the licence.
Reports have since suggested that
TfL is concerned that Uber may not
have met all the conditions outlined
when it granted the company the
15-month licence.
A decision is expected to be made
before the licence runs out.
Ms Roylett said she was “excited to
be joining the company as we look to
build out even more ways to get the UK
moving, support licensed drivers and
help make our cities cleaner”.EE claims Three’s 5G
ad is misleading and
should be banned
EE WANTS to ban an advertising cam-
paign that promotes rival Three’s 5G
network as the only “real” next-genera-
tion service.
Three, owned by Hong Kong con-
glomerate CK Hutchison, launched its
5G network yesterday with an advert
claiming: “If it’s not Three, it’s not
real 5G”.
It has based its claim on the fact that
it is the only operator to have a 100MHz
contiguous block – or the most spec-
trum together in one block. This is
considered to be the “gold standard”
in 5G because it provides faster down-
load speeds.
BT-owned EE claims that the advert
is “misleading” and has asked the Ad-
vertising Standards Authority to inves-
tigate whether it should be banned for
breaching the advertising code.
Three said the advert is designed to
“inform consumers that we will offer
the fastest 5G network”.
An EE spokesman said: “Three’s
claim is false, and deliberately aimed at
misleading consumers. Our customers
have been using real 5G since we
launched the UK’s first 5G network,
back in May.”Technology Intelligence
‘It’s about creating new jobs
and creating opportunities
here, and having Detroiters
with the first shot at that’Melinda Roylett has joined Uber from
payments technology provider SquareTrump stalls trade ban on
Huawei for another 90 days
By Hasan ChowdhuryTHE ban on US firms supplying Hua-
wei has been delayed by a further 90
days as efforts to resolve trade tensions
between the US and China continue.
Wilbur Ross, US commerce secre-
tary, said the Chinese telecoms equip-
ment maker would be permitted to buy
supplies under a “temporary general
licence”, ensuring it retains access to
key components in the near-term. A
ban was due to begin yesterday.
Huawei is the world’s largest sup-
plier of telecoms equipment and relies
on US chipmakers such as Qualcomm
and Intel. In 2018, it spent $11bn (£9bn)
on American components.
It has been swept into the US-China
trade war, with the US alleging Huawei
could use equipment to spy on behalf
of the Chinese government. Huawei
denies all allegations of wrongdoing.
Mr Ross said the decision to extend
the reprieve period was made to give
US companies “a little more time to
wean themselves off [Huawei]”. It
came less than 24 hours after president
Donald Trump cast doubt over any
extension, claiming he “does not wantto do business at all” with the Chinese
firm.
Despite extending the reprieve, Mr
Ross said 46 more affiliates of Huawei
would be added to the blacklist, taking
the total to more than 100. The decision
follows a meeting of Mr Trump and
Tim Cook, Apple chief executive, at the
president’s golf club in New Jersey.
The Apple boss “made a very com-
pelling argument” that tariffs on China
could hurt the smartphone maker and
its ability to compete with rivals such
as Samsung, Trump said. Apple de-
vices are mostly made in China, and
with tariffs on electronic goods due to
come into effect in September, a num-
ber of its products could be hit.
The temporary licence has let US
tech firms such as Google continue
trading with Huawei – whose phones
run its Android operating system.
Since the US order, Huawei has pub-
licly stated “nothing has changed” with
regards to its mobile devices, insisting
to customers they will continue to
receive Android security and app
updates. Huawei has unveiled its own
system, HarmonyOS, which it could
use if it could not access Android.The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 20 August 2019 *** 31
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