From the vantage point of a visitor, there?s not much to see on the barren grounds that once held one of America?s most vaunted manufacturing facilities. Weeds have infiltrated what remains of the factory floor. Traffic lights sway in the breeze in an empty lot where thousands of workers once parked their cars. A rail spur leads nowhere.
But standing on this dilapidated property similar to so many that have come to symbolize industrial collapse throughout the Midwest, John Maddox doesn?t see the remnants of a bygone era. He sees the future.
Such vision requires creativity. One of the two remaining water towers on the west side of this sprawling complex" It could provide water that engineers use to re-create icy and rain-slick road conditions. The rail spur could be outfitted with gates and signals to replicate an actual crossing. Those traffic lights?they can be repurposed for use at custom-built intersections. Maddox leads a nonprofit that intends, soon, to transform these 335 forgotten acres at the Willow Run manufacturing complex in Southeast Michigan into the American Center for Mobility, an advanced proving ground for connected and autonomous vehicles of which Maddox is president and CEO.

Located between the headquarters of Detroit?s Big Three auto manufacturers and the R&D laboratories that have sprung up in nearby Ann Arbor, a high-speed testing center will fill a critical void and play an important role in getting self-driving cars ready for American ro...