At a car dealership across Michigan Avenue from a massive Ford automotive plant, a small box was placed inside a compartment on the top side of a drone sitting still in a parking lot.
Moments later, a man standing nearby told the crowd, “We’re good to go, it’s going to get a little windy,” and the machine’s four rotors buzzed to life with the sound of an angry swarm. The drone lifted into the air as it made its way up and over Newburgh Road, which connects to Michigan Avenue, toward a different parking lot in the distance.
The flight, on Tuesday, Aug. 25, near Ford's Michigan Assembly Plant would be less than two minutes as the drone paused a few times so as not to fly over vehicles passing below, but it signaled the start of a project designed
to test a proof of concept for ferrying auto parts from Jack Demmer Ford in Wayne to a parking lot behind the dealership group’s Quick Lane Tire and Auto Center.
The distance wasn’t so far or so key for now. Currently, a technician might run across the road, dodging traffic, to grab a needed part or maybe a truck would be used to make the trip. The payload, which included oil filters, was designed to meet a 7.6-pound limit (55 pounds when including the drone).
Justine Johnson, the state’s chief mobility officer and one of the designated speakers at this event, said this is “not just testing in a sandbox, we’re testing in the real world.”
This project is part of a grant-funded effort ($740,000 in this instance) to expand Michigan’s advanced air mobility sector, which includes drone deliveries and manufacturing. The state launched a “whole-of-government approach” to better compete in this growing arena, following an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2025.
Delivery drones from Amazon are already becoming a more common sight in parts of metro Detroit.
Although it’s not clear how frequently the flights across Newburgh will be initially, Mark Hatfield, who manages Jack Demmer’s parts department, said the dealership is looking to prove this effort can support multiple flights per day.
In the future, the idea is to make not just these relatively short trips possible but also help make the connection to Demmer’s other locations, such as its Lincoln dealership in Dearborn or a 27-bay commercial vehicle center slated to open next year. That could help shave service wait times, he said.
Brighton-based blueflite, which supplied the drone, will have staff onsite for now during flights based on licensing requirements, with the goal to eventually manage them remotely from the company’s headquarters, according to Tyler Bruder, the company’s business development lead.
The battery-powered drones made their trips on Tuesday (two across Newburgh and back) autonomously, although flights can also be controlled by a human pilot.
Bruder touted the company’s “patented tiltrotor technology” that keeps the cargo bay steady. The drone’s also got a built-in parachute system should it need to land safely in an emergency.
Bruder noted that the company has other upcoming projects beyond the automotive realm, including one involving medical deliveries for Munson Healthcare in Traverse City as part of the larger Michigan initiative and another in Louisiana involving blood deliveries for crash victims.
Another partner in the effort at Jack Demmer is Detroit’s Airspace Link, which supplies the digital platform for preflight checks and for planning flight operations. Rich Fahle, the company's vice president of marketing, described how the landscape for drone operations is shifting toward one with more structure and how his company is part of that evolution.
Eric D. Lawrence is the senior car culture reporter at the Detroit Free Press, and he also writes about recreational vehicles, boats and bikes. Send your tips and suggestions to elawrence@freepress.com. Become a subscriber. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Drones now ready to ferry auto parts for Detroit-area dealership group
