Waymo in Toronto

Why would the smartest people pick the most gridlocked city to test?

I would like to thank everyone who has recently messaged me about Waymo in Toronto. I love to be in touch with readers and am only sorry recent weeks have been so consumed by Ontario’s province-wide program for Uber regulation that I have not had more time to focus on Waymo.

Actually, that’s not completely true; I would rather do almost anything than read another Autonomous Vehicle (AV) press release. But in fact, I have done my best to read the recent Waymo coverage and one question jumps out at me: why, given ALL OF THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO TO RUN AN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE TEST, WOULD WAYMO SELECT THE CITY OF TORONTO?

The pilot under which Waymo says it wants to test its AVs is an Ontario initiative; it is the same set of pilot regulations under which Magna ran its delivery robot test, and Whitby ran its AV bus program, Olli the Autobus. (Both of those ended badly.)

Waymo could select any city on the map of Ontario in which to run its test.  I ask readers as professional drivers: if you could pick any city in Ontario in which to do a test run of imperfect technology destined to have hiccups, would you pick Toronto first?

Crowded, congested, gridlocked, and permanently under construction Toronto?

I would think the first test run would go a lot more smoothly in Kitchener, or London, or even Ottawa. Maybe Windsor or Sarnia, or Sudbury or Thunder Bay.

I’ve been talking to a lot of people about Ontario’s Northlander Rideshare Pilot and also about the demise of Toronto’s Accessible Taxi program in recent days, so I’ve been asking the Waymo question too: if you were planning to test an AV in an Ontario city, why would you pick Toronto?

The answers were interesting.

“If they are looking at AV Taxis, small towns will push back,” one industry member replied without hesitation. “Politicians in small towns will push back; the Taxi companies in those towns will push back. Toronto won’t push back against anything, and corporations know it.”

Ouch.

“It’s all for show,” another man insisted. “They need to show investors and tech media that they are growing and expanding. Toronto is a headline; Windsor is not.”

Ah, OK, that makes sense.

Retired Taxi operator Peter Pellier believes AV Taxis are just a matter of time:

“Robo-taxis are a reality.  In due course, they will completely transform the Vehicle For Hire industry, whether we like it or not.  Going one step further, autonomous vehicles, eventually, will completely alter how people and goods get around, resulting in a significant impact on private vehicle ownership.  After all, with robo-taxis offering transportation for short, medium and long trips at reasonable rates, who needs to own a car?”

While I highly doubt this, I recognize there is a chance this could become a reality, however slim the chance.

“The people running Google and Waymo are supposed to be some of the smartest people in the world,” I asked one operator. “Why would the smartest people on Earth pick the most gridlocked city in North America to conduct an important test? The news will be full of footage of Waymos stuck at dead ends or driving in circles.”

“The media won’t cover it,” he predicted. “The only words that matter to them is ‘Waymo in Toronto.’”

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Speaking of Ontario’s plan to roll out provincial “ridesharing” regulations as part of the Northlander train return, Thorben Wiedtz’s article for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is a great summary:

https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/ontario-is-getting-ready-to-hand-uber-a-massive-gift