Automotive News Canada - May 2019 - 11

* MAY 2019

Accessible dealerships reach
new customers, workers

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA

MOBILITY SPOTLIGHT

Sidewalk Labs intends to convert a section
of Toronto waterfront into a technology-based
neighbourhood with AVs. I L L U S T R AT I O N : S I D E WA L K

LABS

Quayside hits data
security roadblock
Sidewalk Labs'
'smart city' project
appears to be a
road paved with
moral concerns
in addition to
technology hurdles
By JOHN IRWIN
T O R O N T O B U R E A U

TORONTO - THE
struggles that Google parent
Alphabet Inc. has endured in
getting its proposed Toronto
"smart city" off the ground
could serve as a preview of
the challenges companies and
governments might face in
building up infrastructure for
autonomous vehicles (AVs).
In April, the Canadian
Civil Liberties Association
(CCLA) citied privacy concerns in suing the federal, provincial and local governments
over Sidewalk Labs' proposed
Quayside development, a project that could eventually make
use of AVs. Auto-industry analyst Dennis DesRosiers said
concerns about data collection
will continue to grow.
"The one thing that's absolutely for certain with autonomous vehicles is that the
data capture is trillions and
trillions of bits of information," said DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive
Consultants. "We see in our
current situation with the
Facebooks of the world how
data can be used in any situation."
The data collected by the
vehicles' cameras, radars and
other sensors will be put to
good use, DesRosiers said, but
keeping that data secure and
ensuring that private information is stored safely should be
a priority for automakers and
technology companies.
"For the most part, [data
is] positive if used for the
right reasons: safety, climate
change, better fuel efficiency,
things like that, but there are
people out there who will use
it in a negative way, and it's a
big, big issue."

DATA-COLLECTION CONCERNS
Sidewalk Labs' ambitions
for Toronto's underdeveloped
eastern waterfront have raised
the ire of privacy advocates,

who have concerns over how
Sidewalk would protect data it
collects.
The Alphabet unit hopes to
develop a neighbourhood that
would showcase new technologies and use them to build a
greener, more efficient place
to live. Sidewalk Labs said
the project could eventually include AV infrastructure
and showcase how self-driving vehicles could allow public planners to reimagine how
streets are designed.
According to the Canadian
Press, CCLA Executive
Director Michael Bryant
said the project would set
a "terrible precedent" and,
if approved, would subject
Torontonians to "unlawful
surveillance."
In a statement emailed to
Automotive News Canada, a
Sidewalk Labs spokeswoman said the CCLA "has chosen
to mischaracterize our work"
and said any data collected by
the company would be overseen by "an independent data
trust."

TOUGH TECH QUESTIONS
DesRosiers said that questions about privacy as well
as those surrounding morals and ethics will need to
be addressed, including who
should own data and how a
vehicle should be programmed
to act in extreme situations,
such as when a vehicle has to
decide whether to crash into a
pedestrian or an object.
"It's more than just a technology issue facing autonomous vehicles," DesRosiers
said. "But it also is a moral
issue, and that is perhaps one
of the biggest issues."
Failing to adequately
answer those questions in the
public's eye could set companies back in their quests to
create AVs.
"The fundamental issues
with autonomy is that it has to
work 100 per cent of the time,
and any technology has a failure rate," DesRosiers said. "It
may be one in 1,000. It may be
one in a million.
"But there will be situations with autonomous vehicles where something happens,
either deliberately from the
owner's perspective or whoever is in the vehicle, or from a
technology perspective, where
the technology ends up in a
negative situation." - ANC

NIAGARA FALLS, ONT. - MAKING DEALERSHIPS
Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), and Todd
more accessible is the right thing to do from a
Bourgon, executive director of the Trillium
human-rights perspective. It's also a smart busiAutomobile Dealers Association (TADA) in Ontario,
ness decision.
said they planned to meet with automakers to disRick Hansen's message delivered to auto-retail
cuss improving accessibility at dealerships, which
leaders at April's Automotive
often fail to go beyond bare-miniConference and Expo couldn't
mum requirements, such as
have been any clearer. Hansen, a
accessible parking spaces.
FROM TORONTO
three-time paralympic gold-medal
But dealers can do simple
JOHN IRWIN
winner, wheeled 40,075 kilomethings to make their stores more
tres from 1985 to 1987 for his
universally hospitable. A 2018
Man in Motion World Tour to
report by the Conference Board of
raise awareness of disabilities
Canada laid out low-cost steps,
and help find a cure for spisuch as removing clutter to make
C
O
M
M
E
N
T
nal-cord injuit easier for people to move
ries. Hansen
around and using voice-recognition
About 30
suffered such an injury at age
typing technology.
per cent of
15. He now leads the Rick
Hansen said dealerships
Hansen
Foundation,
which
is
often
play critical roles in their
Canadians
dedicated to removing barriers
communities and are in an
factor
that make it difficult for people
ideal position to become leadaccessibility in with disabilities to access plac- ers in making businesses
live or work.
more accessible.
their decision es to
In his address at the expo,
It's a role that dealers
as to which
Hansen laid out the business
should embrace. There are
Rick Hansen laid
case to dealers to make their
costs involved, yes, but we
out a business
businesses
stores more accessible. Citing
must recognize the need to
case showing
they support. a study by his foundation and increase accessibility for
the benefits
the Angus Reid Institute, he
everyone.
of increased
accessibility
said 24 per cent of Canadians have some sort of
Businesses will be better
mobility, vision or hearing disability or challenge, a
off long term if their stores are for auto
dealerships.
number that is expected to rise as the population
accessible to customers and
ages.
potential employees who oth- P H O TO : J O H N I RW I N
And 30 per cent of Canadians, or about nine
erwise might not have considmillion people, said they would "consider accessiered those businesses.
bility when deciding which business to visit."
The auto industry as a whole, in fact, could lead
Increasing accessibility means dealers not only
the way, especially as autonomous vehicles
would be able to bring more customers into their
become commonplace. They will work wonders for
stores but would be opening themselves up to an
people with disabilities by providing mobility.
untapped labour pool. An accessible store could
And if dealerships fully embrace accessibility in
mean more applications from people with disabilithe coming years, the auto industry can pave the
ties, helping to fill jobs in a tight labour market.
way toward making our society inclusive for all.
- ANC
John White, president of the Canadian

http://joeverde.com/can

Automotive News Canada - May 2019

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