GM Celebrates Milford Proving Ground’s 100th Anniversary

General Motors is celebrating the centennial anniversary of the opening of the Milford Proving Ground, marking the occasion with a gathering of thousands of GM employees, retirees, and their families, as well as hundreds of classic vehicles. Located in southeastern Michigan, the facility spans some 4,000 acres and includes nearly 150 miles of road, providing GM engineers with ample opportunity to shake down the company’s latest vehicles. GM also created a temporary museum curated by the GM Heritage Center and GM Proving Ground Retiree Club with memorabilia collected from five key periods in the facility’s history.

“The Milford Proving Ground is at the heart of GM’s long history of innovation that has revolutionized the auto industry, from safety technology to Super Cruise – it’s where vehicles get better, and it’s where I started my career as a summer intern working on V6 noise and vibration,” said GM President Mark Reuss. “Today, we celebrate 100 years of Milford and look forward to its next century of leadership in vehicle testing and development.”

The Milford Proving Ground opened on September 25^th, 1924 under the direction of GM President Alfred P. Sloan with the intention of analyzing GM vehicles in controlled conditions. Testing included vehicle speed evaluations, handling, fuel economy, braking, durability, hill climb performance, and safety. To this latter point, crash and rollover tests were developed to evaluate passenger protection measures.

Between 1941 and 1946, the Milford proving Ground served as a testbed for the U.S. military, with over 680 military vehicles evaluated and more than 850,000 miles covered in order to test combat readiness. Following the conclusion of World War II, the facility expanded, with 51 miles of test roads available by 1954, and a combined traffic total greater than 10 million miles. A 4.5-mile Circular Test Track and Salt Splash Road were added in 1964, while the Ice Surface Facility and Vehicle Dynamics Test Area (a.k.a. Black Lake) were added in 1968.

By the ‘70s, fuel economy became a major focus, as did crash safety with the development of crash test dummies, airbags, child seats, and ABS. Alternative fuel vehicles and the all-electric EV1 began testing in the ‘90s.

Now, the Milford Proving Ground serves as the test bed for GM’s goal of achieving zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion, including the development of autonomous vehicle technology.

“For me and everyone else born with the car lover’s gene, it feels like a playground,” Reuss reminisces. “But every time I go there, I’m instantly reminded why: our customers. Test-driving our vehicles in development means you become the eyes and ears of the customer, understanding what they want out of each vehicle.”