Ann Arbor company joins challenge to support greener operations at Detroit's Eastern Market

Ann Arbor-based software startup Interplai has been announced as one of 10 semi-finalists chosen to receive a share of $3 million to participate in the Toyota Mobility Foundation’s Sustainable Cities Challenge Detroit. 

The Sustainable Cities Challenge is a two-stage, three-year, $9 million global opportunity for cities and innovators developed in partnership with Challenge Works and the World Resources Institute. Detroit was selected – alongside Varanasi, India and Venice, Italy – as one of the top three cities for the challenge. In Detroit, challenge participants are being asked to propose strategies to decrease fossil fuel use and reduce freight operations costs in Detroit's iconic (and expanding) Eastern Market. 

"We've been working hard on our software for a couple of years now, so this is really exciting for us," says Interplai founder Mark Crawford. "It's nice to have a company like Toyota seeing enough promise in us to get us to this level of the challenge."

Interplai's submission, called Interplai Direct, stood out among over 70 entries submitted from across the globe. Powered by AI, the software optimizes routes for delivery vehicle fleets. Crawford explains that the software provides an innovative opportunity for Eastern Market's operators. 

"Say you got a bunch of things that need to be picked up someplace, and then dropped off someplace. And you also have a bunch of vehicles scattered all over the place," Crawford says. "The challenge is figuring out: Can you group some of those orders together? And if you can, which vehicle should actually make that delivery? That's the problem that we solve."

It can get complex for some companies that have thousands, or tens of thousands, of orders that need to be delivered in a day. They don't know how many orders will come in throughout the day. Additionally, their vehicles may need to go "online" and "offline" at different times due to driver logistics.  

"Our software takes all this information all throughout the day and we perform millions of optimizations," Crawford says. "Then we tell our customers, 'Okay, this order needs to be delivered by this vehicle. You can bundle these orders.'"

Collaborative logistics were a strong point in Interplai's proposal. Two or more entities, whether they are partners or competitors, could sort out ways that they can share some of their resources in order to reduce their delivery costs and environmental impact.

"Detroit is the 13th worst city in the country for air quality. With the Eastern Market expanding, more diesel trucks are going to come in, and that means more pollution," Crawford says. "We need to minimize that. That's why Toyota Mobility Foundation was interested in us."

Semi-finalists will be awarded $50,000 implementation grants to further develop their initiatives for Eastern Market. They'll also join the Sustainable Cities Challenge’s Innovator Academy, which offers resources and expert guidance.

"We see this as an opportunity to really dig in," Crawford says. "It's really important getting some validation from the Toyota Mobility Foundation that we're moving in the right way."

Jaishree Drepaul is a writer and editor based in Ann Arbor. She can be reached at jaishreeedit@gmail.com.

Photo by Nick Hagen.