Automotive News Canada - April 2018 - 17

17

* APRIL 2018

Canada's AV testing continues despite Arizona tragedy
Most Canadian
trials are on closed
tracks; identifying
pedestrians poses
a challenge
By JIL MCINTOSH

OSHAWA CORRESPONDENT

CANADIAN RESEARCH AND
test drives of autonomous
vehicles will continue in the
wake of a fatal crash involving an Uber utility vehicle
operating in self-driving mode
in March.
A Volvo used by Uber was
in self-driving mode with a
human support driver at the
wheel in Tempe, Ariz., when
it collided with 49-year-old
pedestrian Elaine Herzberg,
who died in hospital.
Uber immediately stopped
all autonomous vehicles operating on public roads, including one in Toronto.
Researchers at the
University of Waterloo -
located about 100 kilometres
west of downtown Toronto
- and Canadian tech giant
BlackBerry, based in Ottawa,
said they will forge ahead
with AV testing.
Only the
university
has tested
autonomous
technology
on public
roads since
it became
legal to do
so in late
2016. Its
only test on
BlackBerry
public roads
CEO John
in Ontario
Chen says
took
the compaplace in
ny's autonoDecember
mous-drive
2017, when
technology is
researchtested in coners needed
trolled condisnow-covtions.
ered roads.
( P H O TO :
Ontario's
B L A C K B E R RY )
Automated
Vehicle Program allows
autonomous technology testing in real-world situations on
public roads. A government-issued permit is required, but
most research in Ontario is
conducted on closed courses.

something, are the variables
we need to teach the software
to recognize."
Blackberry also conducts
autonomous vehicle testing
in Ontario, but does so on
closed courses for safety reasons. The company conducted
a basic street test in Ottawa at
the Kanata North Technology
Park in October. Company
CEO John Chen said it took
place in "a highly controlled
environment."
While Chen wrote in a blog
post on the company's website
that he is "saddened by the

The University of Waterloo's
autonomous vehicle
undergoes testing.
(PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO)

tragic accident," he also said
research and tests will continue.

"We will continue to test
our software on the road,
and more importantly, will
be accelerating our efforts
to work with legislators and
oversight bodies to promote
the need for safety and security of autonomous vehicles."
Research at the university
will continue, too.
"All the work we're doing
is driven by the idea that computer-operated autonomous
vehicles will be safer than
a human-operated vehicle,"
McKenzie said. "We continue with the same objective,

which is to develop a vehicle
that is more reliable and safer
to operate than a human-operated vehicle."
In 2017, suppliers Magna
and Continental drove autonomous vehicles to Windsor,
Ont., from Detroit, and then
about 110 kilometres north
to Sarnia, before crossing
west, immediately back into
Michigan.
Magna said that "at this
time it would premature to
comment" about how the incident in Arizona might affect
research. - ANC

HARD TO 'SEE' HUMANS
Human identification is
one of the more difficult tasks
for a self-driving vehicle, said
Ross McKenzie, the director
of the Waterloo Centre for
Automotive Research.
So researchers at the
school will spend the next
year attempting to improve
its autonomous vehicle's ability to identify pedestrians and
predict their path of travel.
"We've done some work
with pedestrians, and there
are significant variations
there and challenges," he said.
"We can identify a pedestrian with a reasonable degree
of accuracy, but then these
variations of people clustered
together or people holding
something or walking with

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Automotive News Canada - April 2018
