Driverless delivery vehicles set to hit Toronto streets this spring
Global News
In a report to Toronto's infrastructure and environment committee, the general manager of transportation services said the program will begin in the coming months.
Driverless delivery vehicles are set to hit Toronto streets this spring as part of a provincial pilot program.
In a report to the city’s infrastructure and environment committee, Barbara Gray, general manager of transportation services, said the program, run by Magna International Inc., will begin at some point in the second quarter of 2025.
Magna’s driverless, three-wheeled “Last Mile Delivery Device” vehicles will be delivering small packages throughout several west end and downtown wards over time, including all of Ward 9 Davenport, and portions of Ward 4 Parkdale-High Park, Ward 5 York South-Weston, Ward 11 University-Rosedale and Ward 12 Toronto-St. Paul’s. The vehicles have received a permit under federal law that allows them to be used in Canada for up to a year.
Each vehicle will have constant human oversight from a “chase vehicle,” Gray said, with a supervisor capable of immediate intervention. Furthermore, a remote human operator can assume control during “complex scenarios.”
“Important safety measures include maximum speed of 32 kilometres per hour, travelling only on roads with a posted limit of 40 kilometres per hour or less, no use of left turns, and adherence to internationally recognized cybersecurity and privacy standards,” Gray said in the report.
The vehicles are roughly the size of a large cargo bike with the average height of a typical sedan, the report reads. It will have space to carry small packages stored in separate locked compartments, which are secured with a multi-digit code only known to the receiving customer.
The report went into further detail about the vehicle, and cited Magna’s piloting of it on roads near Detroit, Mich., from 2022 to 2023 “without a safety incident.”
The committee is being told the city has no regulatory authority over the provincial pilot, however Ontario’s transportation ministry invited city staff to review Magna’s application into Ontario’s Automated Vehicle Pilot Program and provide input.
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