David Medina Álvarez hopped on a four-wheeled vehicle that looked like a speeder bike from Star Wars. Donning a helmet and goggles, the 25-year-old designer zoomed down 15th Street, driving alongside the massive Michigan Central train station, built in 1913, which had just reopened after a gleaming $1 billion renovation.
Rather than Detroit’s past, however, Mr. Medina Álvarez represents the city’s future. He was riding an electric all-terrain vehicle of his own design called the EQUAD. It’s like those used by police to patrol vacation resorts and retirement communities, and which adventure seekers ride off-roading over dunes, mountain roads and in some lawbreaking instances, city streets.
Starting with $2,000 in family money, Mr. Medina Álvarez and a team of nine people are developing a production version at LIVAQ, one of 103 start-ups at Newlab, a 270,000-square-foot mobility-focused incubator set in a former book depository designed by the architect Albert Kahn. (“Livaq” is a pre-Hispanic Quechuan word to describe the explosion created by a bolt of lightning.)
Ford Motor Company bought the vacant building in 2018, when it purchased the neighboring train station, and began renovations. Since the site opened last year, Newlab projects have received nearly $700 million in funding, although none has yet reported revenue as a stand-alone company.
Nearly 130 years ago, Henry Ford tested his first automobile on Detroit’s streets, helping to usher in its future. Now, an incubator less than two miles from that test drive is moving the city even farther forward.
Resembling something out of Silicon Valley or Brooklyn, where a similar Newlab incubator operates, the three-story building has long hallways and glass-windowed work spaces. One floor features a row of trees in big planters.
Tables and chairs and bright sofas abound in open seating areas, site of informal meetings by the more than 700 people working here throughout the day. A busy cafe near the entrance has pastries and grab and go meals, with complimentary coffee and tea, plus plenty of dining space with a view of the train station.
Throughout the building, you can see prototypes of Newlab’s many projects, including that of Mr. Medina Álvarez.
Born in Mexico, he became fascinated by automobiles as a toddler, and says he knew at age 8 that he wanted to become a car designer. It was not a passing fad. By 15, he was so serious that he began exploring college programs, ultimately enrolling at the College for Creative Studies here.
He planned to focus on electric-powered motorcycles but found that market was already saturated. Buoyed by memories of driving ATVs on the beach at Acapulco, where his parents have a home, he researched the market for electric versions, and found it was dominated by China.
That started his school project, and after graduation, LIVAQ, for which he has now built the first prototype, using a chassis made in Mexico. He received private backing from the Great Lakes Angels Fund , although he would not say how much.
Mr. Medina Álvarez is taking deposits on his website for production versions, which start at $18,989 including a pre-order discount. He hopes to deliver 250 to 500 finished models in 2025, and within five years, he would like to produce 2,000 a year.
Long term, Mr. Medina Álvarez says he’d like to build his ATV in Mexico for the Latin American market along with those made in the United States. “I appreciate everyone here, the transportation ecosystem, but Mexico is home,” Mr. Medina Álvarez said.
Newlab is also the work space of the retired firefighter and public-school teacher Ron Butler, 55, whose start-up, Energy Safety Storage Products International, was inspired by his profession. After 25 years with the city’s fire department and nine in Detroit schools, he is developing a line of fire-retardant products meant to prevent and contain lithium-ion battery fires, an increasing problem across the country. The National Transportation Safety Board has warned of risks to emergency responders from high-voltage battery fires in EVs.
When he retired from both jobs, “I knew I wanted to do something in fire safety,” Mr. Butler said. In 2018, he landed a $100,000 investment from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and subsequently received grants of more than $1 million from the U.S. Transportation Department.
His projects include a storage locker that resembles a vending machine, filled with individual, glass-enclosed compartments that can hold small devices like cellphones and laptops. He’s also developed a bulky orange blanket, lined with fire retardant, that can be draped over a car. Each of the devices, including the blanket, can measure temperature data. For instance, when you drive your EV, then shut it off, it’s supposed to cool down. Data from the blanket could tell you if the battery is failing to return to a normal temperature. If it happens too often, that’s when a fire might be possible. “We can predict weeks in advance” if a problem might occur, Mr. Butler said.
Working with a team of 10, Mr. Butler has become a consultant on fire safety procedures for automotive and maritime companies as well as the Fire Department of New York, which faces a significant problem with battery-powered bikes. The batteries sparked 268 fires in 2023 that killed 18 people and injured 150 others. “The city cannot get ahold of this issue,” he says, hoping that safeguards he is developing can be a solution.
Upstairs from Mr. Butler, with a vista that overlooks the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, sits Airspace Link, one of the incubator’s first and biggest projects.
Under its chief executive, Michael Healander, and his two co-founders, Ann Healander, Michael’s wife, and Daniel Bradshaw, the firm is aggressively preparing for new federal rules governing drones, officially known as unmanned aircraft systems. Under current law, drones must be flown within the operator’s sight, at no higher than 400 feet, and their use can be restricted or banned, depending on local conditions.
But by 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration is expected to issue rules that allow drones to operate beyond visual line of sight, or BVLOS, giving operators a broader area in which they can be flown, if they are meticulously tracked, and the ability to track multiple devices, says Bill Johnson, Airspace Link’s chief financial officer. “That allows the economy to unlock the potential for drones,” he says.
Farther along compared with some of its Newlab neighbors, Airspace Link has obtained $37 million in backing, growing to a team of nearly 50 employees from 17.
Inside the bustling Airspace Link lab, a wall-sized digital map shows the drones in use across the country, limits on the heights where they can be flown, and places where they are prohibited. Each of the 785,000 drones in use must be registered with the F.A.A. and whether they are for personal or commercial use. Each gets an ID tag with its registration number.
Back in 2013, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos went on “60 Minutes” and demonstrated how drones could be deployed for deliveries. Fast forward a decade, and Airspace Link says its services, which include advising drone operators, can support a vast array of users, from hobbyists to economic developers, public safety departments, farmers, real estate agents and yes, delivery companies.
“Everybody is recognizing that there’s a moment happening, a kind of wildfire going on,” said Rich Fahle, the company’s vice president of marketing.
Within two to five years, he predicts, the logistics field will be transformed as entities figure out how drones fit into their operations, and municipalities regulate the new environment. For many, the future is coming at them fast. “City planners are not used to planning anything in the sky,” he says.
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