In March, Honda R&D Americas unveiled a new operation, and a new focus, around Ann Arbor. SPARK was on-hand for the official opening of the Mobility Collaboration Garage, a place focused on collaboration between startups, industry, and the community. The project actually harkens back to Honda’s earliest days, when their founder would work in the garage to develop, tweak, and test ideas as they made new vehicles.
This new location also serves as a point between Honda’s facilities in near Columbus, Ohio, Ann Arbor, and metro Detroit. The Midwest is becoming a “smart corridor” and this helps anchor the work and innovation happening in Michigan with Honda’s developments in Ohio as well.
Read more from Automotive News, Honda moves into a glass house to stir mobility ideas.
The Mobility Collaboration Garage will be one of the locations served by the Honda Xcelerator program. Honda will offer “free space, free mentoring and free access to tools” at the site, and it is staffed by some innovative R&D engineers through Honda.
Ann Arbor SPARK has been working with the University of Michigan, Mcity, and others to orient Honda to the growing startup ecosystem, and mobility focus, that we have growing in the Ann Arbor region. In January, SPARK hosted Honda Mobility Hacks, a 24-hour hackathon centered on coming up with new solutions for mobility technology.
Honda’s Mobility Collaboration Garage is located at 2420 Oak Valley Drive, Ann Arbor, in Pittsfield Township. Going forward, we look forward to collaborating with Honda as we grow together around new mobility technologies and techniques for ideas at all stages.
