Detroit put the world on wheels, and now the region is the epicenter of the next generation of mobility.

But Detroit is not mobile.

More than a quarter of Detroit households don't own an automobile, ranking eighth among the 30 largest cities in the U.S. behind only cities with robust mass transit systems, such as Chicago, New York City and Washington, D.C., according to a 2014 study by the University of Michigan's Transportation Research Institute.

As the automotive industry rapidly transforms from traditional cars and trucks to connected and autonomous "living rooms on wheels," the city of Detroit is presented with a great challenge.

But what better place to test a technology that will change the world?

Imagine automakers and suppliers creating low-cost, or even free, services for low-income Detroiters while proving theories. Engineers behind the wheel and people with a real need to reach a destination as passengers. The industry gets validation of its technology and the public gets a service.

These services could allow the industry to do good while doing good work — particularly when the image of automotive is at an all-time low in the wake of recall scandals and record profits.

Let's start with the problem.

The city's mass transit options are terrible, even if it's gaining a new rail line and potentially a new rapid transit bus line. For many major metropolitan areas, this may not be the biggest issue, as jobs are more available within the city limits for its city residents. Not so in Detroit.

Of the 258,807 jobs existing in the city, 71 percent are held by employees commuting from the suburbs, according to a 2015 report by the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce and funded by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. That's only 0.37 jobs for every resident — abysmal compared with other cities.

For instance, Atlanta has 818,462 jobs in its city and a population of 447,848, or 1.83 jobs for every resident. Cleveland has a population of 394,335 and 466,305 jobs, or 1.2 jobs for every resident. These cities must attract workers from the suburbs to fill jobs.

In Detroit, 108,000, or 61 percent of employed Detroit residents, travel outside the city for their jobs, according to the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce study. Roughly 46 percent of those travel more than 10 miles from home, the study said. Unreliable transportation options for the city's residents precludes many from finding those jobs in the suburbs.

The harsh reality is that the city needs to put 49,000 of its residents to work just to match the state average of labor force participation.

The automotive industry holds the solution.

Over the past few years, and especially in the past 12 months, the local automotive industry has ramped up efforts to make car-sharing, electrification and self-driving vehicles a reality. But these technologies are, depending on who is talking, a number of years from mass market commercialization or profitability.

But the testing is ongoing, and research and development is cropping up all over Southeast Michigan.

The state is closing on the sale of 300 acres at Willow Run in Ypsilanti to create an $80 million testing hub for connected and driverless cars called the American Center for Mobility, which is expected to open in 2018. UM opened its MCity early testing facility for the same technologies last summer.

General Motors Co. acquired driverless car tech firm Cruise Automation for $1 billion, invested $500 million into San Francisco ride-sharing service Lyft, launched its own car-sharing service Maven, all earlier this year.

Maven offers customers a fleet of new vehicles on demand, for use in exchange for an hourly fee. It has more than 5,000 registered members.

"We found, with the actions we've taken over the last year, the role we're going to play (in the auto business) is going to change remarkably," GM President Dan Ammann said at Detroit Homecoming earlier this month. "It is our intention to define mobility. We're taking that deadly seriously, and we're going to win."

Maven recently launched one-way car-sharing service in Southeast Michigan with rates as low as $3.50 per half hour. A user could get from downtown Detroit to Detroit Metropolitan Airport for as little as $5, compared with more than $40 for a taxi.

Ford Motor Co. created a mobility subsidiary, Ford Mobility LLC, and began testing driverless cars in Pittsburgh with Uber last week. Uber then announced it was opening an office in Detroit to partner with local automakers.