Researchers at the University of Waterloo will help move fully autonomous vehicles much closer to reality now that they are the first to receive approval to test their innovations on all public roads in Ontario.
In a first for Canada, Ontario’s Minister of Transportation, the Honourable Steven Del Duca, announced today that the province approved Waterloo’s three-year autonomous vehicle research program, under its AV pilot program. The Waterloo team is using a Lincoln MKZ hybrid sedan nicknamed Autonomoose.
“This is a direction in automotive engineering innovation that are we are proud to lead in Canada, and we applaud the Government of Ontario for their foresight,” said Pearl Sullivan, dean of the Faculty of Engineering at Waterloo. “As Canada’s strongest research team in connected and autonomous vehicles, with engineering and computer science professors working in areas from embedded sensors, to advanced controls to artificial intelligence, we are very excited about this new frontier for piloting Waterloo innovations.”