The province of Ontario is officially underway in the self-driving car pilot program by the Ministry of Transportation. The University of Waterloo, Erwin Hymer Group and the BlackBerry QNX is about to begin testing from their research teams and engineers.
January 1st, 2016 marked the day Ontario became the first province in Canada to allow companies to research and develop autonomous driving technologies. On the news General Motors of Canada had hired 700 engineers to work specifically on self-driving cars in the cities of Oshawa and Markham, Ontario.
The vehicle being tested by the University of Waterloo is the performance of the Lincoln MKZ, to see its different levels of automation. A Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van is being tested by the Erwin Hymer Group while BlackBerry QNX will being doing its research with a 2017 Lincoln car featuring automated systems.
Interestingly enough, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers believes that by 2040, about 75% of the vehicles on the road will be autonomous or self-driving cars. If those numbers come to be true than the importance of self-driving technology being mastered is imperative as the roads will need to be safe despite the driver not always having their hands on the wheel.
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