Automotive News Canada - January 2018 - 1

TECHNOLOGY: CANADA'S OTHER AUTO INDUSTRY/P14-16

JANUARY 2018 | VOL. 3, NO. 1 | AUTOMOTIVENEWS.CA FOR BREAKING NEWS AND DIGITAL EDITION

The design of the Chrysler Portal
concept deviates from the
typical two-box format
that's common today.

NEWSMAKERS/P18
LOOKING BACK, MONTH-BY-MONTH/P17

2017

(PHOTO: FCA)

THE YEAR
IN REVIEW

P12-13

Autonomous
tech to rule
Toronto site

Successful test could
spawn 3.2-square-kilometre
development along
eastern waterfront

FCA DESIGN BOSS

RALPH GILLES

FUTURE LOOK

Vehicles without internal
combustion, or even drivers,
provide new styling freedoms

By JOHN IRWIN
TORONTO BUREAU

By STEVE MERTL

VA N C O U V E R C O R R E S P O N D E N T

A POTENTIAL MIXEDuse development in
Toronto, spearheaded
by a corporate sibling of
Google, could provide a
first-hand look at how
autonomous vehicles can
transform urban design
and living.
Sidewalk Labs, a
division of Google parent Alphabet Inc., and
the government agency Waterfront Toronto
were tapped late in 2017
to plan the development
of a 12-acre (five-hectare)
plot of land just east of
downtown near the Lake
Ontario shoreline.

LOS ANGELES - THE AVALANCHE OF UTILITY
vehicles creates a challenge for designers.
How do you take a two-box layout and distinguish
your brand from dozens of its other boxy brethren
now populating parking lots?
"I don't look at it as any more challenging than
doing a sedan," says Ralph Gilles, global head of
design at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
"We love it; we embrace the challenge.
"I think crossovers, when they showed up six,
seven years ago, they were a little bit formula. But
now you're starting to see some great variations."
It helps if your product already has a solid brand
identity. FCA provided distinctive looks for the Jeep
Compass and Renegade, the New York-born,

The demonstration project
could expand to 3.2 square
kilometres on Toronto's
waterfront.
( P H O T O : S I D E WA L K L A B S )

Sidewalk Labs,
which has committed
$50 million to planning
Quayside, as the development has been dubbed,
could begin construction
next year if plans are
approved.

SEE BEAUTY PAGE 20

SEE TECH PAGE 20

Asbestos ban: Probably not happening this year
Nick Lafontaine, 19, of St.
Albert, Ont., an apprentice in the GM Automotive
Service Educational
Program, applies a brake
solution to limit exposure
to asbestos particles.

(PHOTO: ROBERT BOSTELAAR)

Report pegs import
of cancer-causing
brake pads at
333,000 a year
By ROBERT BOSTELAAR
O T TAWA C O R R E S P O N D E N T

CANADA'S LONG-AWAITED
ban on asbestos in brake shoes
and other products is closer

to reality - although still far
away - with the publication of
proposed regulations expected
to be approved later this year
and be in force in 2019.
The new rules will prohibit
the use, sale, import and export
of asbestos and products that
contain it. The new rules would
replace looser regulations that
allow brake shoes and other
products containing the cancer-causing mineral to slip into
Canada from Russia, China and

other countries that still mine
asbestos.
The government is now asking the public and industry for
feedback during a comment
period, which ends March 22.
Depending on how that process
plays out, it is possible the ban
could be in effect by the end of
2018.
Despite earlier industry
fears, however, the new ban
won't apply to asbestos products
already installed. According to

a report from the federal health
and environment departments,
the short lifespan of brake
shoes and other friction materials will soon eliminate exposure
risks for auto-sector employees.
In buildings, the risks in
removing insulation, cement
and other products containing
asbestos "would be extremely
costly and may actually lead to
more harm to human health,"

SEE LISTED PAGE 9
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - January 2018
