Driverless Cars
© folienfeuer / Adobe Stock not . Since 2010 , most major automotive companies and several tech and electronics firms have forged partnerships and entered the race to develop the driverless car . The majority of these companies expect to have fully autonomous vehicles ready by or before 2021 , and some have already succeeded . For example , autonomous Ubers are currently roving the streets of Pittsburgh , Tempe , Arizona , and San Francisco . In October 2016 , Otto ( an Uber subsidiary ) conducted the first driverless commercial shipment in Colorado , where a transport truck full of Budweiser drove itself 120 miles from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs . In 2015 , Google put a fully autonomous vehicle with no pedals or steering wheel on the streets of Austin , Texas . In the same year , Delphi completed a 3,400-mile driverless road trip from San Francisco to New York City in an Audi SQ5 . Ford continues to test autonomous vehicles at Mcity ( the University of Michigan ’ s 32-acre mock city designated for driverless testing ), and on city streets in Michigan , California and Arizona , with plans to begin testing in Europe . It is estimated that 10 million autonomous vehicles will be present on public roads within the next three years , and by 2040 , over 75 per cent of the vehicles on the road will be driverless .
To keep pace with technology , U . S . legislation governing autonomous vehicle testing has developed recently and proliferated quickly . In 2011 , Nevada became the first state to allow autonomous vehicles . As of June 2017 , 33 states
34 Q3 2017 www . amcto . com have introduced legislation to permit the testing of autonomous vehicles . Eighteen states have passed this legislation , and an additional four state governors have issued executive orders related to autonomous vehicles .
While our neighbours to the south have already embraced the driverless revolution , Canada is the last G7 nation to begin planning for autonomous vehicles . In October 2015 , Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca announced that Ontario would be the first Canadian province to test driverless vehicles on public roads beginning Jan . 1 , 2016 . Under the pilot project , corporations and researchers are permitted to apply to test autonomous vehicles on public roads , so long as a licensed driver is behind the wheel to take control of the vehicle if necessary . The pilot is scheduled to run for 10 years and is restricted to testing purposes only . More recently , the Ontario government announced that it will invest $ 80 million over five years to create the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network in partnership with Ontario Centres of Excellence . As part of the 2017 provincial budget , the Ontario government identified the City of Stratford as a demonstration zone for autonomous vehicles . Details are still forthcoming , but it is understood that driverless technology will be tested in research locations around the province , with actual vehicle testing on the streets of Stratford , the province ’ s only demonstration zone . Finally , the 2017 federal budget allocated $ 76.7 million to modernizing Canada ’ s transportation system , which will include the development of regulations for autonomous vehicles . However , Ontario remains the only Canadian province to allow driverless vehicle testing .
In conjunction with the 2015 provincial autonomous vehicle pilot project announcement , the City of Stratford partnered with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association ( APMA ) to position itself as Ontario ’ s first reallife testing ground for autonomous vehicles . APMA chose to partner with Stratford because of the substantial investment the municipality has made in digital infrastructure . Today , Stratford offers a citywide wireless network that includes 60 kilometres of buried fibre optic high-speed internet cable and 400 communications towers . The presence of this digital infrastructure saved APMA several million dollars and made Stratford an ideal location to demonstrate new automotive technology in a “ living lab ” environment .
Autonomous vehicle testing began in Stratford in 2016 when Renesas Electronics partnered with Blackberry QNX and the Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research ( WatCAR ) to test an autonomous car prior to the Las Vegas consumer electronics show . An autonomous Lincoln MKZ circled the Stratford Festival parking lot for six weeks during the holiday season . In June 2017 , Stratford city council approved a three-year lease agreement with Renesas to use a portion of cityowned property for autonomous