The Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research (WatCAR) focuses on collaborative research in automotive and transportation systems, by facilitating relations between those within the automotive industry and University of Waterloo faculty researchers.
WatCAR also participates in connecting undergraduate students with co-op work placements and graduate students with internships.
Automotive and information technology are converging in today's vehicles at a rapid, disruptive rate. With the largest engineering faculty in Canada and with a computer science school based in the largest mathematics faculty in the world, Waterloo knows this convergence all too well.
As a leading North American academic enterprise, WatCAR offers over 125 faculty with 40+ research competencies. We are a portal for assemblers, parts manufacturers, materials suppliers and regulators, and software and technology companies. See our detailed list of research expertise.
Vision
WatCAR envisions future mobility to be smarter, cleaner and more convenient; available to an increasingly wider segment of society.
Our researchers work to achieve this vision through their expertise in:
- connectivity,
- cybersecurity,
- advanced powertrains,
- artificial intelligence,
- autonomous driving,
- and structural light weighting.
News
Self-driving shuttle bus coming to campus
A self-driving shuttle bus - the first at any academic institution in Canada - could be operating on the Ring Road at the University of Waterloo by the time students return to campus for in-person classes as COVID-19 restrictions ease.
Experts weigh in on the future of autonomous vehicles
An expert panel that features a Waterloo Engineering professor released its report today on the potential impact and key issues surrounding connected, autonomous, shared and electric (CASE) vehicles.
Convened in the summer of 2019 by the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA), the panel stressed there are pressing decisions required to achieve potential benefits from CASE vehicles including economic growth and cleaner, safer, more accessible transportation.
Teaching self-driving cars how to handle the worst of winter
Researchers have created a new testing and training tool to inspire solutions to the particularly complex challenges of developing autonomous vehicles (AVs) capable of handling winter weather.
Released today, the free, open-source dataset - dubbed the Canadian Adverse Driving Conditions Dataset (CADC) - is a collaboration of research teams at Waterloo Engineering and the University of Toronto that are working to advance AV perception algorithms. Read the full story.