Snow, salt and freezing rain: Waymo tests robotaxis in Canada for the first time
Waymo is bringing its driverless taxis to Toronto. Ontario is letting Google's sister company join a pilot programme; riders are due to board from 2028, with mapping coming first.
Symbolic image · Photo: Daniel Ramirez from Honolulu, USA / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Google sister company Waymo plans to bring its robotaxis to Toronto, its first city in Canada. According to The Canadian Press, the government of Ontario has approved the company's participation in a pilot programme for testing autonomous vehicles. At first, the cars will drive the city's streets with a human at the wheel. They will build high-definition maps and collect data, followed by test drives with a safety driver. Passengers are to be carried from 2028.
Technically, Toronto is seen as a tough test: slush, road salt and freezing rain can coat the sensors for months, Electrek writes. Waymo calls its system all-weather. According to The Canadian Press, the latest Waymo vehicles have 13 cameras, six radar units and four lidar sensors. Robotics professor Sidney Givigi of Queen's University warned that all the sensors can be blocked by snow. Waymo cites more than 400 million autonomously driven kilometres and, by its own data, 95 percent fewer crashes causing serious injury than human drivers.
Several legal questions remain open. Ontario's rules are a testing framework, not a licence for a ride-hailing service, and according to Electrek they expire on 13 October 2027, months before the planned launch. According to The Canadian Press, the province is demanding a credible jobs plan. Waymo names Toronto-based fleet manager Element Fleet Management as a partner. Toronto is the company's fourth announced market outside the US, after London, Tokyo and Singapore.