Self-driving car crosses U.S.-Canada border

The first cross-border test in North America involving self-driving vehicles took place Monday with a demonstration at the Canadian-U.S. border. “This marks a milestone in the development of self-driving cars,” Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada said in a press release. Canada’s Magna International Inc. and the United States’ Continental AG, both automotive suppliers, were behind the demonstration that spanned approximately 500 kilometres, beginning in Michigan and travelling through Windsor and Sarnia, Ont. before heading back to Michigan. “Today’s cross-border demonstration of an automated vehicle represents unprecedented collaboration between two nations and private industry,” Kirk Steudle, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), said in a Magna press release Monday. The release added it’s the first cross-border demonstration of its kind, which allowed MDOT, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and the two car companies to “test automated driving technology in a variety of settings,” including through the concrete Detroit-Windsor tunnel. Continental’s Cruising Chauffeur feature, for example, allows it to gather data, generate a 360-degree model of the car’s surroundings and with a high-resolution map, recognize all moving and static objects and the layout of the road ahead, the Magna release said. On hand for the demonstration was Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains. “Today’s demonstration is an important example of how our ongoing cross-border cooperation is advancing connected and autonomous vehicle technologies,” he said, according to the government release. The 2017 federal budget allocated $50 million over five years for work on such disruptive transportation technologies, the release added. Earlier this month, Bains met with U.S. commerce secretary Wilbur Ross to talk about how such emerging technologies, including autonomous cars, could present an opportunity for bilateral cooperation. Lawyers appearing before the Senate’s transport and communications committee have also spoken about the unprecedented collaboration needed for these types of cars.

Self-driving car crosses U.S.-Canada border

Brief | July 31, 2017

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Self-driving car crosses U.S.-Canada border

Brief | July 31, 2017

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