May Mobility is gearing up to put self-driving wheels in Grand Rapids.

Less than two weeks after the Ann Arbor startup said it will roll out its second fleet of driverless shuttles, the tech company has struck its third deal, this time with Michigan's second-largest city. The Grand Rapids Autonomous Mobility Initiative is a public-private partnership of nine Michigan-based companies and the city of Grand Rapids to bring the six-seat autonomous shuttles to public streets in March.

The goal of the initiative is to find ways to address congestion and stimulate the work-life balance in a city that has seen growth in recent years. The city of Grand Rapids kicked in $250,000 for the one-year pilot, which the city's Mobile GR Director Josh Naramore said is about a third of the cost for the service. Jackson-based Consumers Energy Co., French automotive supplier Faurecia, Zeeland-based Gentex Corp., and Rockford Construction Co., Seamless Accelerator Venture Capital Fund LLC, Steelcase Inc. and Start Garden incubator, all of Grand Rapids, are in on the program.

May Mobility declined to disclose the full cost of the roll out.

"We're excited our first [autonomous] pilot is for moving multiple people. This is a step to show that Grand Rapids is ready for" autonomous vehicles, Naramore said. "When new technology comes, we want to make sure it's accessible to everyone, not just some."

May Mobility will deploy four electric shuttles on downtown Grand Rapids' existing Dash bus route. Ben Thompson, who heads up the company's business development, said they will begin testing the route in February ahead of the public launch to augment the existing route to complement Dash. The shuttles will run a three-mile loop, connecting riders to jobs and businesses in the downtown.

The company is scouting office space for the operations center and garage space in which to operate and store the four shuttles. Thompson expects the company will hire about 15 local people to run the pilot program.

"We have partnerships across the city to bring together the best services or solutions to bring the city to the future," he said. "We want to make sure we are a part of the community, not just selling to the community."

The shuttles will be free to the public. The city of Grand Rapids will have authority to charge fares if it sees fit, but Naramore said the city is looking for ways to make public transportation free. The fleet will run 7 a.m.-7 p.m. weekdays.

Grand Rapids hopes to become a landing spot for mobility testing. While most technologies tend to focus on the country's largest urban centers such as New York City and Chicago, Naramore said his city of nearly 200,000 people could be a model for smaller centers such as Des Moines, Iowa, Indianapolis and Milwaukee.

May Mobility teamed with Bedrock LLC in Detroit to become the first company to launch self-driving vehicles on public roads this summer. The fleet carries Bedrock employees to and from work offices and parking garages. In December, the company will start a shuttle fleet in downtown Columbus, Ohio, serving the general public.