Detroit is not in North America.
The automotive industry in the United States began in the 1890s and , as a result of the size of the domestic market and the use of mass-production , rapidly evolved into the largest in the world . Detroit . Detroit is best-known as the center of the American automobile industry , and the `` Big Three '' auto manufacturers General Motors , Ford , and Chrysler are all headquartered in Metro Detroit . The Detroit River flows for 24 nmi from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system and forms part of the border between Canada and the United States . The Great Lakes region of North America is a bi-national Canadian-American region that includes portions of the eight U.S. states of Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Minnesota , New York , Ohio , Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as well as the Canadian province of Ontario .