January 12, 2018

Innovative Technology Testing on the Rise in Ontario

If you haven’t heard yet, driverless cars are here but they still need to be tested. Ontario’s liberal government is proposing to change the rules of its 10-year automated vehicle pilot project to allow for driverless testing. Right now, testing a driverless car is only allowed when a human is present behind the wheel but the government is looking to change this requirement.

Currently, driverless vehicles are only allowed on Ontario roads for testing purposes but the government wants to allow regulars drivers to buy, register and operate those vehicles in the provinces with no extra restrictions.

Ontario was the first jurisdiction in Canada to allow on-road testing of automated vehicles and there are currently seven participants that are interested in testing vehicles without drivers, including BlackBerry’s QNX, Magna, Uber and the University of Waterloo.

Overall, this new proposal seeks to lower fuel consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help improve road safety and efficiency by allowing the testing of platooning (when vehicles with smart technology communicate with and closely follow one another).

Some industry leaders are predicting these driverless cars to go on the market anywhere from this year all the way to 2040, so stay tuned!

To read more, click here.