He visits the American Center for Mobility on March 14.
When President Donald Trump arrives in Michigan on Wednesday, he'll find a state eager to cement its role as the heart of the U.S. automobile industry as it heads into its autonomous and connected vehicle revolution.
Trump, in turn, is signaling to the automotive leaders gathering with him for a conversation on jobs and emission standards that he's elevating mobility as a national business issue.
He's doing that through his choice of venue: The American Center for Mobility in Ypsilanti Township.
The location also is notable, in the months after a contentious election that's left many people polarized along party lines, for its ability to pull officials in Michigan into bipartisan support as they seek federal funding.
The American Center for Mobility site evolved from a World War II bomber plant to a 5 million-square-foot factory for General Motors, before it was closed, razed and then sold to the state. The property, its remaining structures, and its infrastructure - like freeway access - are beginning a transformation into the country's first ground-up testing facility for automated and connected vehicles.
While a few other states have testing, "We're the only one that is purposely designed and constructed and ... (will be) operated as a connected and autonomous vehicle proving ground," John Maddox, CEO of the American Center for Mobility, said early this year.
Construction should start soon, as the ACM lines up private funding and partners.
Just as the mobility race is pushing the world's automakers quickly toward autonomous vehicles, setting up the testing infrastructure is critical for the U.S., Maddox said. That ensures that the investment, the creativity, the engineering work - and often the manufacturing - remains here, too.
"My biggest worry is that the U.S. will fall behind," Maddox said in the earlier interview. "And that other countries will leapfrog in front of us."
He continued: "The U.S. transportation system is the lifeblood of our economy."
With advances in vehicle communication and autonomous development, "we'll see reductions in costs of moving goods and people. If we don't (realize that potential), other countries will.
"That could make us less competitive internationally."
After the election Trump was critical of both the auto industry for its non-US manufacturing expansion and of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which affects many US automakers with significant facilities and supplier systems in Canada and Mexico.
Since then, he's met with auto leaders and forged relationships. Also since the first of the year, several automakers have announced shifts to more US-centered investment and production. In early January, that totaled $2.7 billion - with more following, including cross-company collaborations for autonomous vehicles and alternative fuel development.
Michigan is benefitting from that, notably through General Motors and Ford production changes for electric vehicles and innovation.
"This state has always been a trailblazer in the automotive industry," said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who will join Trump in meetings and other events associated with the president's visit.
Today, Snyder said, it's doing that by creating places where the auto industry - notably its engineering base, which is growing in Michigan - can advance its vehicle technology. That includes business collaboration tools, the branding of the state's mobility efforts under the Planet M brand, and the development of M-City at the University of Michigan.
Meanwhile, Trump is coming to a community that's long celebrated its blue collar roots, thanks in large part to the influx of factory workers to the former Willow Run plant. It employed 42,000 at its peak during World War II, with many people staying in the community. Today, Ypsilanti Township is the second-largest municipality in Washtenaw County, with 53,000 people living there amid region-leading residential growth.
While the township voters most recently cast nearly three times as many votes for Hillary Clinton as for Trump, the streets of Ypsilanti Township closest to the former Willow Run plant voted 4.5 times more for the Democratic challenger in the 2016 presidential election.
Yet it's not a place where politics got in the way of the state's plans for the ACM. Trump's visit - his first to Michigan as president - comes just a few months after the Willow Run groundbreaking. Snyder shared a stage with the state's top Democrats and sat next to Ypsilanti Township Supervisor Brenda Stumbo as all celebrated the potential of the closed factory site.
She said that on that day, no one put politics over passion for the creation of the America Center for Mobility. She hopes that spirit will be present on Wednesday as Trump gets his up-close look at the facility and hears about its potential.
"It takes a team to work together toward goals, regardless of the political part," Stumbo said. "This has everything to do with the future of our community and our state."
Stumbo said this history of the factory makes it a fitting place for an event where Trump will talk about US auto manufacturing and its future.
More than 70 years ago, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt visited the site as the giant factory turned out B-24 bombers for World War II.
At that time, he was a Democratic president serving a nation united in a war effort. Willow Run, built in Washtenaw County by Henry Ford because it was Republican territory, was becoming crucial to the defense of the U.S.
The country, along with Ford and Roosevelt, united over the priority for the U.S. on that property: Building the Liberator planes.
Today's leaders have a chance to unite over the future of the nation's auto industry and how connected and autonomous will change transportation - and save lives.
"I hope they can see and learn the history of what it was," Stumbo said, citing the 59-minute production cycle for the B-24 in the 1940s.
"It was so innovative and visionary," she said, noting that's happening with the site's repurposing.
The technology is close; so is the opportunity to set the ACM on the track the US auto industry - and Michigan - needs.
"It takes everyone working together to make something happen regardless of politics," Stumbo said.
"President Trump needs to see the vision and value from having the proving ground and testing facility in our community," she continued. "And I think he will."