Ride · Live Transit
Live Transit
The 3D map and trip planner — DDOT, SMART scheduled, QLINE.
Open the map →
Live Transit Detroit
Every bus in Detroit,
live on one map.
Every DDOT bus live in 3D; SMART buses shown live under license, display only. Positions poll continuously and publish about every five minutes; the map dead-reckons between updates.
Built by Justin Spencer Smith — Lead Technologist, AutomatedTechnologies; builder of Live Transit Detroit and the Detroit Automation Academy.
83Routes tracked, estate-wide
~5 minPosition publish cadence
3Systems — DDOT · SMART · QLINE
The Academy
Robotics, drones, automation & IoT cohorts.
The map is the product. The Academy is the institution behind it — seasonal cohorts for Detroit's young builders, from first circuit to first career. Four tracks, a published curriculum, and registration by email.
Ride · Vote
Plan the trip.
Ride · Departure Board
Departure Board
Find your stop — the nearest stop and its next departures, big-type.
Find your stop →Vote · Voter Guide
The Detroit Voter Guide
Four ballot questions, and a planned trip to every early vote center.
Read the guide →The Signal
Following Detroit's transit future.
The Signal is the academy's monthly newsletter — the buses, the rails, the maps, and the people building them. Schedules, reliability, and the gaps between the map and the street. Free to read, built to forward.
It's also how the academy gets funded. Here's the trajectory:
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Phase 01 — Now
Audience
A free monthly newsletter building a loyal readership. Reputation first, revenue later.
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Phase 02 — Next
Sponsorship
Sponsors underwrite the editions. Their brand becomes part of Detroit's builder story.
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Phase 03 — The flywheel
Advisory
Advisory revenue flows straight back into the academy. Every edition funds a student trained.
Featured articles
Every piece below, newest first — the full story is right here, no click-through required. Links at the foot of each card go to the full text.
The Signal · Relaunch Edition
The Signal is now a transit newsletter
Published October 11, 2026
The Signal repositions to transit: the buses, the rails, the maps, and the people building them. Why the shift, what stays, and what comes next.
Read the full piece →The Signal · Special edition
Every DDOT Bus, Live, in 3D — Now With Trip Planning
Published October 6, 2026
Every DDOT bus in Detroit, drawn on the actual streets in 3D — now with trip planning.
Read the full piece →Detroit 2126 · Installment 1
The Ride Is Free
Published October 1, 2026
What does Detroit look like in a hundred years if we build it for everyone who'll live here? First up: how we move.
Read the full piece →
Subscribe on LinkedIn
Become a sponsor
New editions monthly. The transit archive lives at detroitautomationacademy.com/signal/.
The mission
The city that put the world on wheels
trains the kids who'll run the automated world.
Detroit Automation Academy exists for one reason: the young people of this city should be the ones building the automated future, not watching it arrive from somewhere else. We teach robotics, drones, and automation the way Detroit taught the world manufacturing — hands on, no shortcuts, pride in the work.
This academy has never received institutional funding. No grant, no sponsor, no check that was promised. It was built anyway — nights, weekends, borrowed space — and it's being finished on principle. Detroit's kids shouldn't have to wait on paperwork.
Build, don't watch
Every student leaves with something they made move, fly, or think.
No pity, no jargon
We talk to young builders like builders. High bar, plain language.
Detroit first
The talent is here. The training should be too.
Programs
Four tracks. Zero fluff.
01
Robotics Cohorts
Seasonal build cohorts — design, wire, and program robots that compete and perform. Challenge-based learning from day one.
02
Drones
Flight fundamentals, safety, and real missions. Students learn the airspace rules and the engineering behind the rotors.
03
Automation & IoT
Sensors, controllers, and the logic that connects them. The same systems thinking that runs modern factories.
04
Apple Code + Create
App design and Swift development for young creators — run with the Michigan Engineering Zone. From idea to working prototype.
Tracks, the published curriculum, and registration live on the Programs page →
Try it
Type a command. Watch it move.
This is what day one feels like at the academy: you tell a machine what to do, and it does it. The training bot is listening — drag to orbit the 3D training district, tap a building to visit it, or type “takeoff” and fly it as a quadcopter.
In good company
Built alongside Detroit's builders.
- University of Michigan Center for Innovation — advisor
- Qualcomm Thinkabit Lab — instructor
- College for Creative Studies — mentor
- Michigan Engineering Zone — instructor