You are now entering the Autonomous Motor City

Detroit missed out on Amazon’s HQ2, but Ford Motor Co.’s Corktown-bound influx of engineers at the auto industry’s cutting edge increase odds that the big online retailer’s first self-driving delivery vehicle will be developed here.

Welcome to Autonomous Motor City.

Ford’s massive commitment to Corktown — which begins, not ends, with the arrival of 2,500 high-tech specialists — will make Detroit’s oldest neighborhood a center of development for the planet’s most advanced vehicles and services. It’s part of a growing network of facilities that put Michigan at the center of the next transportation revolution.

Ford’s revitalization of the giant Michigan Central Station that loomed over Detroit’s 60-year decline “is a pioneering investment that will show others what can be done,” said Detroit Economic Growth Corp. President and CEO Kevin Johnson.

“Young tech workers are market-makers. They spend more time and money on lifestyle and entertainment locally," he said. "They’re more likely to live close to work.”

Also likely to open offices near Corktown: suppliers working with Ford on self-driving and electric cars, connected-car technology and services.

“A lot of these engineers will be in fields of expertise new to Detroit and the auto industry,” Society of Automotive Engineers Editorial Director Bill Visnic said.

Programs run out of the depot will range from cloud computing and cybersecurity to laser sensors and smart infrastructure.

“Michigan is known for the automotive expertise and engineering, but this is where technology is going,” said Robert Magee, executive director of the Engineering Society of Detroit.

Despite today’s exhilaration, Ford is not seen as a leader in any of these specialties. Company leadership is convinced that’s one of the reasons their stock has languished, despite consistent profits and popular vehicles like the F-150 and Lincoln Navigator.

General Motors is widely seen as the automaker likely to commercialize self-driving cars first, an accomplishment likely to boost its stature in the finance and tech communities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch senior analyst John Murphy said.

GM, too, is hiring and investing to increase self-driving vehicle engineering and development, setting the stage for another competition between the two old rivals.

Also on Freep.com:

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Imagine autonomous vehicles shuttling engineers and executives up and down the 7 miles of Michigan Avenue that connect Corktown to Ford HQ in Dearborn.

“It’s an ideal environment to be an incubator and showcase for autonomous vehicles,” SAE’s Visnic said. “You could put sensors and communication for smart traffic and vehicle-to-vehicle communication along the route and have the vehicles deal with snow, rain and traffic in a limited, but still real-world environment.”

The Corktown campus will take shape at the same time Ford rebuilds its 800-acre Dearborn campus, stretching from the aging Glass House HQ building to a test track and tech center.

“Corktown is an enhancement to our Dearborn campus,” said Dave Dubensky, chairman and CEO of Ford Land, which manages the automaker’s properties in Dearborn, and now Corktown. Chairman Bill Ford and CEO Jim Hackett recently signed off on changes to the Dearborn campus’s design, but Corktown won’t affect investment in Dearborn, Dubensky said.

“Ford’s decision to establish the mobility group in the heart of Detroit, the birthplace of the auto industry, is more than just symbolic,” said John Maddox, president and CEO of the American Center for Mobility, the sprawling test track for developing autonomous and other advanced vehicles in Willow Run, just west of Detroit. “It also provides them the opportunity to be immersed in the type of urban areas that these automated mobility offerings will directly serve.”

Contact Mark Phelan: mmphelan@freepress.com or 313-222-6731. Follow him on Twitter @mark_phelan.