By CRM staff
Toronto, Ontario — January 23, 2019 –- Self-driving cars will be becoming more of a reality seen on Ontario roads in the near future.
Ontario’s Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek announced on Tuesday that Ontario has gone forward with making changes to the 10-year automated vehicle pilot program, which was launched in 2016.
The recent changes will allow vehicles equipped with higher levels of autonomation – Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Level three technology – to be driven on Ontario roads once they are eligible for purchase in Canada.
Ontario will also be allowing people to test driverless automated vehicles and connected truck platoons on the roads, with strict conditions.
“We’re cutting red tape for Ontario universities, companies, and others involved in automated vehicles to stimulate innovation, economic growth, market share and job creation in our province. Ontario is leading the nation in testing, developing and bringing these new technologies to market,” he said.
Yurek mentioned that the program has also changed to allow researchers to test platooning technology, which allows large trucks to travel together using vehicle-to-vehicle communications.
The success of the University of Waterloo’s autonomous vehicle the “autonomoose” was also mentioned during the announcement as it has racked up 100 kilometres on public roads last August.
The Ontario government’s efforts to moving forward with autonomous vehicles is their hopes to not only opening up more opportunities for business and for the economy to grow even more but to become a leader in automated and connected vehicle technology.
