The New SEMA Garage Detroit Has the Tools to Help Speed Your Products to Market

It's official: The new SEMA Garage Detroit facility opened its doors to the industry on August 18. In reality, the facility had been undergoing a soft launch for several prior months, with different services coming online through the completion of a series of construction phases. Nevertheless, August marked a major milestone in the SEMA Garage's ability to bring cutting-edge research and development programs and technologies to a rapidly changing industry.

"The productivity of the original SEMA Garage in Diamond Bar [California] and the fast pace of automotive technology prompted further investment in our Garage initiatives, and so the SEMA Board of Directors approved a plan to add another SEMA Garage facility in the Detroit area," explained SEMA CEO Mike Spagnola. "What's especially noteworthy is that some 5,000 sq. ft. of the new building will be devoted exclusively to research on advanced driver-assistance systems [ADAS], which is a major priority in our association's drive to make R&D technology accessible to members."

Situated in the Detroit hub, the new Garage offers greater proximity to SEMA members in the Midwest region and creates greater throughput on the emissions-compliance front. It will house equipment that will offer the ability to test both two-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive vehicles. Since it's located in the same area as many Tier-1 OEM suppliers, the Detroit facility will also offer the long-term opportunity to build and expand on relationships with carmakers and major suppliers, helping to create avenues for collaboration on vehicle personalization.

Tackling ADAS

The collision and repair industry has done much groundwork in properly putting ADAS-equipped vehicles back together. To date, however, no organization has addressed how to make different tires, bumpers, mirrors, grilles, suspensions and other modifications compatible with ADAS features. SEMA's new ADAS Research Center in Detroit aims to fill that void by systematically researching popularly modified vehicles, model by model, and building a library of best practices accessible to all SEMA members.

"It's trailblazing work that needs to be done now, before there are more regulations and obstacles, in order to stay ahead of this fast-moving technology," SEMA Garage General Manager Ben Kaminsky said. To build the ADAS Research Center, SEMA turned to outside industry pioneers in the field.

"They helped us understand what our facilities and systems should be like," Kaminsky explained. "That included everything from light fixtures to wall colors down to not putting metal plates on our outlets because radar can reflect off them. We also had to pay close attention to the flatness and levelness of the floor. We mapped out a grid that told the construction crew almost foot by foot where to grind the concrete to make it level."

The SEMA Garage has also assembled an ongoing ADAS advisory panel to help set research priorities. The panel was key to the selection of a '22 Chevrolet Silverado truck as the first vehicle to study. They were also specific about the vehicle's configuration and trim.

"A lot of our members from around the industry said this was the first vehicle they wanted answers on," Kaminsky said. "It's one of the more popular trucks for consumer modifications. Our Silverado had to have a particular engine configuration, a particular cab configuration and particular ADAS options. Our advisory panel basically steered us in the right direction for that."

The vehicle will now be modified with the panel's input. New wheels, tires and a leveling kit are at the top of the list. As the Garage crew performs each modification, there will be careful study on its effects on ADAS features. Solutions to any problems that arise will be documented to help builders and installers everywhere. Numerous other popular trucks and vehicles will follow.

"The interesting part is that many of our panel members are competitors in the industry, and they're coming together to solve a common problem so they can all have a common footing," Kaminsky noted. "I've been very impressed with how they're working together and how open they've been with information and which vehicle and product configurations sell."

 

Emissions Compliance

Since the inception of the SEMA Garage, another of its key programs has been assisting members in demonstrating that their performance products meet regulatory emissions-compliance standards and gaining California Air Resources Board (CARB) Executive Orders (EOs) that permit the legal sale of those products.

In February 2022, SEMA added the SEMA Certified-Emissions program, a new way for specialty automotive parts manufacturers to meet the legal requirement for emissions compliance under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tampering Policy. SEMA's certification program enables manufacturers to verify that a product meets the EPA's "reasonable basis" criteria and is therefore legal for sale in 49 states. According to Peter Treydte, SEMA director of emissions compliance, the new Detroit Garage will greatly enhance those services to members.

"We're adding manpower for our Compliance Center, whether that be for assisting with CARB EOs or for SEMA Certified-Emissions services," he explained. "We're also adding another laboratory and two new dynos, which means we'll have more capacity for doing the testing that's necessary."

With the advent of vehicle electrification, the Garage is keeping an eye on the future as well.

"With electric vehicles (EVs), it's not directly emissions testing, but range testing, and range translates into emissions in one form or another," Treydte explained. "There may come a time when evaluating the range of EVs that have been modified would be required, and we'll be able to provide that service as well."