While electric vehicle production continues to tip the scales of the auto industry in favor of new technologies, one Port Huron company is adding autonomous vehicles to the mix.
Not to be confused with driver-assisted vehicles, a well–known feature of Teslas, autonomous vehicles carry goods and people, without any need for a driver.
“It's both a new, emerging technology and also something that's been in development for a while,” says Brandon Bartneck, vice president and general manager of
Edison Manufacturing and Engineering.
One of 29 companies housed in
Port Huron’s Advanced Manufacturing and Technology Park, Edison Manufacturing was borne of longtime automotive supplier P.J. Wallbank Springs, also located within the Park.
Edison acts as a manufacturing partner for other companies, helping them jumpstart the production of autonomous vehicle projects, from developing a fleet of fully autonomous shuttles, carrying people from one location to another, to building self-driving vehicles that transport goods between a warehouse and store.
“Often we're working with companies who have a new technology or are entering a new market or doing something new, and we help them transition this idea into reality,” Bartneck says. “So, going from an existing prototype or proof of concept, helping them build more vehicles, and then scale into usually lower volume production.”
Right now, Bartneck says Edison is partnering with a company working in “off-highway autonomy,” or more simply, off-road vehicles that function without a driver.
In Michigan, people can find autonomous vehicles in use in major cities like Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids, mainly for public transportation. But Bartneck says autonomous vehicles are on the move nationwide, with other cities like Phoenix using self-driving taxi services.
A widespread technology, being forged in the city of Port Huron, Bartneck says it’s important to Edison that the community be a part of its work.
Their headquarters in the Advanced Manufacturing & Technology Park has become a practice facility for the
Blue Water Area Robotics Alliance, St. Clair County’s collection of FIRST Robotics teams.
Bartneck says it’s more than just an opportunity to support local high schools, it’s a chance to engage youth and inspire a career interest.
“A lot of stuff they do in FIRST Robotics is directly applicable in that you have hardware and software development, you have some automated functions that are being executed by those robots, which mimic the logic and the engineering that go into something like an autonomous vehicle,” he says. “So that's super important.”
While Edison has leaned heavily into autonomous vehicle opportunities, Bartneck says they’re working in electric vehicle production. The company just started production with an electric boat company and is on its way to helping an electric truck company finish up the final assembly.
The road to Michigan’s future might be paved in autonomous vehicles, and other technology that falls under the electric vehicle umbrella, but Bartneck says there’s no way to guess what they could become, or what kind of impact they might have on people’s everyday lives.
“I think my overall perspective is, no one has a crystal ball,” he says. “No one knows exactly what's coming in the future, whether it looks closer to the way people and goods are moved today, or if it looks drastically different, or if it looks somewhere in between, if that transition takes five years or 50 years, there's informed opinions and predictions, but no one really knows what's coming.”
Uncertain, but exciting, giving Edison, and Bartneck, endless opportunities to look forward to. But no matter what twists and turns Edison’s corner of the industry takes, he says they’re staying prepared for whatever comes next, so they can help the community prepare too.
“We're just a small piece of the puzzle,” he says. “But I think that type of approach also helps the community, in that it helps the local community be prepared for success, kind of whatever that future looks like as well.”
People can find Edison Manufacturing and Engineering at 2005 Petit Street.