Waymo Picks Toronto for Its Big Canadian Debut

Toronto could become the first Canadian city to offer Waymo’s fully autonomous taxi service. The California-based company just announced that it’s laying the groundwork for a launch slated for 2028, and its first vehicles will soon be making the rounds on the streets of Canada’s largest city.

• Waymo is starting to map Toronto under Ontario’s Automated Vehicle Pilot Program

• A commercial launch is targeted for 2028

• Hundreds of jobs are expected to be created over time

Humans Behind the Wheel, for Now

This first phase isn’t futuristic. The company has been cleared to send its cars across the city with drivers aboard, allowing it to build high-definition maps of Toronto’s road network and gather data on local conditions.

Trained specialists will stay behind the wheel.

The goal is to adapt the company’s self-driving system, the Waymo Driver, to the region’s traffic, infrastructure and, above all, its weather. For a company that operates mainly in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and Las Vegas, a Canadian winter is a real challenge.

Thankfully, Toronto’s climate isn’t as harsh as Montreal’s, but snow will still play a role.

For its first steps on Canadian soil, Waymo is teaming up with Toronto-based Element Fleet Management, which will run the vehicle fleet. Jobs are planned in maintenance, driving (for validation purposes), customer service and operations.

Impressive Numbers

The vehicles’ system combines cameras, radar, lidar and artificial intelligence to deliver a 360-degree view of the surroundings. Waymo logs more than 500,000 paid rides per week across more than 15 cities. Its fleet numbers around 4,000 vehicles and has racked up more than 400 million kilometres (roughly 250 million miles).

According to the company’s own data, its cars were involved in 95 percent fewer serious injury crashes than human-driven vehicles. Waymo’s service isn’t perfect, but overall, it’s impressive. Incidents are very rare.

As for Uber, which also plans to expand to Ontario, it won’t be for another two years. And Montreal someday? Picture the chaos with all those orange cones and potholes.