Waymo eyes Toronto

Meanwhile, Magna’s self-driving test cut short for “bad behaviour” by robots

“Alphabet’s much-hyped self-driving car company is looking at Toronto. Waymo, the autonomous taxi service where passengers roll solo, opened a registration with Toronto’s lobbyist registrar on November 6,” City Hall Watcher Matt Elliott reported on December 1st.

“Head of State Political Strategy Aidan Ali-Sullivan and Head of International Policy & Government Affairs George Ivanov are on the file. They have yet to log any formal lobbying communications.

Ali-Sullivan has a Canadian connection. He previously worked for the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs.

The file says the pair will be ‘communicating about the potential development of by-laws and regulations related to autonomous driving technologies, including as it relates to operational authorizations, commercial operations, goods delivery operations and ridehail operations,” Elliott reports.

“Waymo has had success with their service in cities like San Francisco, Phoenix, L.A. and Atlanta, operating a service with a much better safety record than human-driven cars. But you’ll note that all those cities have much different weather from Toronto.

If Waymo does come to Toronto, it wouldn’t be the first autonomous vehicle company to try out our streets. Magna International recently tested out a self-driving delivery vehicle service in Toronto, but the pilot was mysteriously cut short in October. A report on the agenda of this week’s meeting of the Infrastructure & Environment Committee says the transportation department observed a lot of bad behaviour from the robot vehicles, including frequent abrupt stops.”