“This combination of research and testing in a controlled facility like MCity, and testing on the street in the real world, on this scale, doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world,” said James R. Sayer, director of the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

Glenn Stevens can attest to that. An executive with a business organization that promotes the Detroit area’s autonomous vehicle activities, he recently met with groups from the Netherlands, Germany and India.

“We’re constantly hosting companies from every continent,” Mr. Stevens said.

And Ann Arbor is not alone. Thanks to its long automotive history, Michigan is the site of a broad array of research efforts and development centers that are focusing on connected cars and autonomous vehicles. In addition, Michigan has passed laws clearing the way for extensive testing on public roads — even for self-driving vehicles that have no steering wheels — and has equipped more than 100 public highways with electronics to facilitate testing of connected cars and self-driving trucks.

The competition to lead in a new era of self-driving cars is fierce. Silicon Valley, the Phoenix area and Pittsburgh are hotbeds, as are Singapore and Shanghai. In Europe, researchers have pushed ahead on tests of platoons of self-driving trucks.