“MobilityTown: Out of Our Cars and Into the World”
Newlab, Michigan Central Station
Detroit.
May 16, 2025
There is a reason Detroit is called the “Motor City” and not the “Public Transportation City.” But as modern car and technology companies work to develop self-driving vehicles, there’s no reason it can’t be both.
This futuristic thinking is the basis of “MobilityTown: Out of Our Cars and Into the World.” Created by robot designer Carla Diana and projection mapping artist Motomichi Nakamura, the exhibit is currently taking place at the Newlab tech center at Michigan Central Station.
The five-point exhibit starts at the Newlab entrance with a projection of a whimsical scenario on the reception desk. Squat white cartoon characters of various shapes are waiting at the airport to be transferred into the city via a modular self-driving train.
The stop-two projection continues with an aerial view of how the modular train works. Vehicles and trains of various lengths move along the map. All are made up of the same-sized compartments within the original train in stop one. What is unique is watching how the train breaks off into smaller pieces throughout the grid, giving passengers a direct route to their destinations.
Stop three is the most fun. It offers an immersive perspective through VR. Once you put on the headset, you experience the ride as one of the characters, entering the tiny train compartment and cruising through a fictionalized Detroit with gray buildings and imaginary hills in the background as you head to the Fox Theatre downtown.
Next to each other, stops four and five continue the interactive experience with projections that allow you to spin a wheel to move the production line of the cars and wave and thumbs-up your new animated friends as you say goodbye.
The whole experience takes less than 30 minutes to go through, depending on how much you loiter and what the line is like for the VR. (There was no line when we went on a Friday in mid-afternoon.)
“MobilityTown” is proof that futuristic ideas don’t have to be complicated. The exhibit is fun and charming and a quick, easy way to envision a new way of thinking about mobility. The exhibit is free and on display from noon – 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays until June 7.
