SHERIDAN, WYOMING – October 12, 2024 – On his second day at law school, Wayne McConnell got a call from General Motors, inviting him to interview for a job at the Milford Proving Ground.
Turned out, it was also his last day at law school.
More than 40 years later, McConnell now runs Milford, a 4,000-acre GM test center in suburban Detroit that includes nearly 150 miles of roads.
Since 1924, Milford has played a critical role as a testbed for GM cars, trucks, and SUVs - and occasionally tanks and moon buggies.
While technology in recent times has dramatically accelerated the capabilities of both GM vehicles and the methods for testing them, Milford will continue to play a key role in the vehicle development process for many years to come.
Q&A with Wayne McConnell
To help mark Milford Proving Ground's centennial, McConnell sat down for a rare Q&A to talk about his career, the role Milford plays at GM and how vehicle testing will change in the future.
Q: Lucky for GM, the market for engineers was terrible when you graduated from Michigan State?
A: Engineering jobs were hard to find in 1982, so I moved to Boston to work for a construction company. From there I was set to move to Saudi Arabia to begin a project, but it had stalled. So, on a whim, I decided to attend law school. On my first day of law school, the dean talked to the students and told us that there were too many lawyers and if we wanted to have a long, successful career, we should become engineers instead. In that moment I thought to myself, "I am already an engineer." GM called and the rest is history.
Q: You started as a test engineer for tires and wheels.
A: When I started at Milford, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I was afforded the opportunity to drive amazing vehicles and make a meaningful impact in how they performed. I spent winters in Mesa, Arizona, at our old winter proving ground. In my early years, I worked for Buick, and the mothership was in Flint. People told me that to get promoted, I'd need to spend time working in Flint. And I said I love what I'm doing in Milford. They promoted me anyway. Later, I was told that if you want to be an executive, you must go to Flint. And again, I said, I love what I'm doing, I'm staying put. And they made me an executive anyway. I spent my first 17 years mainly in the same office in Milford.
Q: Eventually, though, you did shift to Flint.
A: I did. GM tapped me on the shoulder and said, if you ever want to run all of this someday, you need to go see what the rest of engineering is about. So, I spent eight years in Flint, Pontiac, and Warren performing many different jobs. I had multiple director jobs in chassis. I also led what was called show vehicles, which were products like police vehicles, ambulances, and limos. But eventually I ended up back in Milford to run the Noise and Vibration Center.
Q: But you took another detour.
A: After about a year of being back in Milford I took over all the vehicle performance teams. I spent two years in that role before I was asked to move to Brazil and lead our proving grounds in South America. In 2012, I moved back to the United States where I was given the opportunity to lead all of General Motors' proving grounds, including Milford.
Q: Wayne, you have a new challenge now, which is to transition testing to be more virtually driven. It's an important moment for GM, and for you.
A: It is important, and I am passionate that we do not screw this up. We have the best engineering teams in the industry. I tell people this all the time, and because of our people we have the best product portfolio in GM's history. There are huge industry pressures to get faster and more efficient in how we develop our vehicles. Utilizing virtual capabilities is a part of that and we have embraced it. We are moving quickly but making sure we do not skip any steps. It is a challenge - but a challenge we must embrace.
Q: That is making some people a little uncomfortable.
A: Anything new or unknown makes people uncomfortable at first. A lot of employees, when they hear about the drive to virtual, think we are going to limit our hardware testing or physical vehicle work - they worry we are going to close Milford.
Q: But we're not.
A: We're not. But we must move faster. With all the virtual work we're doing, we're shortening the timetable. We're getting rid of early prototypes made with prototype tools, with parts from a supplier we aren't likely to use in a production vehicle. We're switching to production suppliers and tools, so that the very first vehicles we test are 80% or 90% of the way there.
Q: Technology is changing everything.
A: Right. Like virtual testing. In the past, if we decided to build 50 prototype vehicles, we'd order parts from a supplier, providing the seller with strict tolerances. Every part was the same. That is nothing like the experience if you produce a million cars - they won't always have the same suppliers, or the exact same components. There will be variations. With virtual tools, we can let computers go through all the iterations of thickness of metal, and variations in rubber parts. The computer might find we're holding tolerances on the wrong parts.
Q: Testing time is going to be more compressed, too.
A: When I started at Milford, we'd sometimes utilize our early test vehicles for two or three years in the development process. We have since significantly reduced the development time required. And we're looking all the time at how to improve that. As our virtual tools continue to evolve, I see the day where it could be weeks and months.
Q: The team Milford needs is changing, too.
A: We have about 5,000 employees here at Milford, more than we've ever had. When I started, I would bet 95% of the employees were mechanical engineers, and 5% electrical engineers. Today software engineers make up 50% or more. But there is still a role for everyone at Milford as we integrate these complex systems and products.
Q: OK, so here's a tough question. You drive all of GM's vehicles as well as those from the competition. What's your favorite ride?
A: Like I said earlier, I believe we have the best portfolio of vehicles in General Motors history. To me there's nothing better than our new Corvette C8 or the new GMC Sierra EV