A pilot project is bringing self-driving robots to Toronto — sparking concerns from one city councillor
CBC
Toronto's crowded streets will soon see another type of vehicle: self-driving delivery robots — a decision the city had no approval over and a major concern for one councillor whose downtown ward will be affected.
The pilot project, run by Magna International Inc., will see up to 20 self-driving vehicles, under the observation of humans in cars, fan out across several neighbourhoods on streets where speed limits are 40 kilometers per hour or lower.
It was approved by the provincial Ministry of Transportation, and the city's infrastructure and environment committee will discuss it Wednesday.
The robots will join drivers, cyclists and pedestrians using the roads in Parkdale-High Park, York South-Weston, Davenport, University-Rosedale and Toronto-St. Paul's. The pilot is expected to start in the second quarter of this year, according to a city report which doesn't specify what month the pilot is set to begin.
The vehicles will have three wheels and are about the size of a large cargo bike, with the height of a typical sedan, according to a city report. They will have locked compartments to hold packages that can be opened with a multi-digit code.
That report says the robots successfully completed deliveries in 2022 and 2023 without safety incidents on roads near Detroit. But Coun. Dianne Saxe, who represents University-Rosedale, worries that experience isn't enough to let the vehicles into dense Toronto neighbourhoods.
"This is a solution looking for a problem. We already know how to make low carbon local deliveries work really, really well inexpensively. And that's with electric cargo bikes," Saxe said.
"I'm worried about everybody. I'm worried about pedestrians, especially at intersections."
She also takes issue with the way the project came to be.
"It is absolutely typical of the [Doug] Ford government that they give the city no say while they interfere in one of our core responsibilities," she said.
In response to Saxe's concerns, a spokesperson for the ministry of transportation said Ontario's roads "are among the safest in North America." The spokesperson added the province has permitted automated vehicle testing in locations across the province.
While Magna International Inc. said the company has spent months engaging with all levels of government and promised the vehicles would not operate in bike lanes, Saxe said if the city were to have a say, she'd want more information before voting on the project.
Magna is instituting several safeguards during the pilot, according to the staff report.
Those include:
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