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From the Director

Henry Liu Mcity Director
Henry Liu
Mcity Director

Mcity takes pride in its ability to adapt, evolve and grow in response to an ever-shifting mobility landscape.

The most significant change in our history came March 1, 2025, when we became part of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, and I became director of UMTRI.

UMTRI, celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2025, is a leader in transportation safety research. From advancing child restraint systems to leading one of the world’s largest deployments of connected vehicles and infrastructure, UMTRI research informs global safety practices.

Mcity in 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of its purpose-built test facility for evaluating connected and automated vehicles. This was the most innovative and experiential area of automotive research at the time the Mcity Test Facility opened. Since then, Mcity’s mission has evolved into serving as a makerspace for mobility innovation, from vehicle testing methods to smart city technologies and more.

By combining Mcity and UMTRI into one organization, we'll be able to multiply the research capabilities we have for even greater impact, and build an even stronger reputation globally.

Mcity is evolving as the landscape for mobility research changes, especially against the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence. While the scientific challenges that have slowed the rollout of autonomous vehicles in large numbers have not yet been resolved, AI is accelerating us toward a breakthrough that we can also see is coming in our own research.

“
Mcity’s mission has evolved into serving as a makerspace for mobility innovation, from vehicle testing methods to smart city technologies and more.”
Henry Liu, Mcity Director

By the numbers

Mcity, founded as a public-private partnership and long known for our test facility, has in recent years developed into a leading research center on connected and automated vehicles and infrastucture, pursuing and winning government grants while adding more features and capabilities to the test facility. The support of our partners in industry and academia, as well as government, has made this possible.

Mcity attracted over $50M in federal research funding over the past three years.

Mcity funded over $25M in research at U-M from industry membership fees in the last 10 years.

  • Total number of Mcity-funded research projects: 60 (including Michigan Engineering; Michigan Law; College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; Ross School of Business).

Mcity worked with over 100 private companies as members.

  • 2015-2018: 16 Leadership Circle members, 52 Affiliates.
  • 2018-2021: 11 LC members, 41 Affiliates.
  • 2021-2024: 9 LC members, 17 Affiliates.
  • 2024+: Three levels of industry membership, based on total company revenue, plus no-cost membership for government, nonprofits with director's approval. As of December 2024, Mcity had 15 member companies.

Our team

We strengthened our already collaborative and capable team in 2023 and 2024. Several new hires bolstered the Mcity engineering team, expanding our ability to translate research systems into more commercial implementations. We also deepened Mcity’s partnership with the staff at the Center for Connected and Automated Transportation CCAT staff, and researchers in the Michigan Traffic Lab.

Plus, we expanded the Mcity leadership team. Greg Stevens, an automotive industry veteran, was named Mcity Research Director in 2023. Alexandra Murphy, a U-M assistant professor of sociology, joined the team in 2024 as Associate Director for Social Science Research.

Alex Murphy Associate Director, Social Science Research
Alex Murphy
Associate Director, Social Science Research
Greg Stevens Research Director
Greg Stevens
Research Director

Research milestones

Mcity achieved several notable research milestones in 2023 and 2024, including:

Developing simulation tools for validation of AVs and Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS).

  • In one example, we’re working with NVIDIA’s Omniverse platform to enhance the Mcity Test Facility and close the divide between simulated and real-world testing conditions. The “sim-to-real” gap describes the sometimes not-so-subtle differences between a simulated environment and its real-life counterpart. These variances have in the past been cited by engineers as a reason simulation is not robust enough for reliable AV testing.
  • We’re also working with NVIDIA and MITRE, a government-sponsored nonprofit research organization, to develop a virtual and physical AV validation platform for industry deployment.

Learn more about our accomplishments in the progress report.

Looking to the future

The mobility space is always in flux. New challenges are identified. New technologies emerge. Mcity is actively working on several projects today that could reap significant benefits for stakeholders in the future. They include:

  • Executing our Depot Autonomy research project, in partnership with Mcity member Noblis, as a case study in automating ADAS-equipped systems inside a depot yard, which could dramatically improve efficiency and reduce costs for yard operators.
  • Offering researchers in academia and industry access to our Mcity Data Engine for open-source creation of self-improving AI models. This could be particularly useful for small companies and those that do not have the in-house engineering expertise to build their own data engines.
  • Deploying C-V2X technologies at 75 sites in the city of Ann Arbor, a project known as the Ann Arbor Connected Environment 2.0.
  • Assisting the City of Ann Arbor with near-miss measurements using traffic cameras already in place as part of the Ann Arbor Near-Miss Detection project.
  • Exploring an expansion of Mcity’s research initiatives into Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS or "drones") and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) initiatives.
  • Establishing Mcity as a makerspace for AI in transportation.
  • Building awareness of the Transportation Security Index, a tool developed by Prof. Alexandra Murphy, Mcity’s associate director of social science research. The TSI is the first validated measure of transportation insecurity, a condition in which a person is unable to regularly get from place to place in a safe or timely manner due to an absence of resources necessary for transportation.

Amid the challenges and uncertainty of the current economic environment, Mcity remains focused on bringing value to our stakeholders at U-M, in industry, and in government, and on continuing to build our reputation as a part of UMTRI. Access to UMTRI’s broader resources, particularly the institute’s research groups, will increase Mcity’s value and strengthen our competitiveness in working with our partners to win large-scale funding proposals. Already a leader in AV behavior testing, we stand ready to tackle new areas of focus as they emerge, and continue to grow as a makerspace for mobility innovation.

Mcity is an interdisciplinary public-private partnership bringing together industry, government, and academia to transform mobility. As part of the U-M Transportation Research Institute, Mcity helps advance safe and efficient transportation and mobility solutions for the benefit of society.

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