A pilot project is bringing self-driving robots to Toronto — sparking concerns from one city councillor

Toronto’s crowded streets will soon see another type of vehicle: self-driving delivery robots — a decision the city had no approval over and a major concern for one councillor whose downtown ward will be affected. 

The pilot project, run by Magna International Inc., will see up to 20 self-driving vehicles, under the observation of humans in cars, fan out across several neighbourhoods on streets where speed limits are 40 kilometers per hour or lower. 

It was approved by the provincial Ministry of Transportation, and the city’s infrastructure and environment committee will discuss it Wednesday. 

The robots will join drivers, cyclists and pedestrians using the roads in Parkdale-High Park, York South-Weston, Davenport, University-Rosedale and Toronto-St. Paul’s. The pilot is expected to start in the second quarter of this year, according to a city report which doesn’t specify what month the pilot is set to begin. 

The vehicles will have three wheels and are about the size of a large cargo bike, with the height of a typical sedan, according to a city report. They will have locked compartments to hold packages that can be opened with a multi-digit code.

That report says the robots successfully completed deliveries in 2022 and 2023 without safety incidents on roads near Detroit. But Coun. Dianne Saxe, who represents University-Rosedale, worries that experience isn’t enough to let the vehicles into dense Toronto neighbourhoods. 

“This is a solution looking for a problem. We already know how to make low carbon local deliveries work really, really well inexpensively. And that’s with electric cargo bikes,” Saxe said. 

“I’m worried about everybody. I’m worried about pedestrians, especially at intersections.”

WATCH | See the robots for yourself: 

Magna self-driving vehicle coming to Toronto streets

4 days ago

Duration 0:13

A demonstration of Magna International’s self-driving delivery vehicles is coming to Toronto. Video provided by Magna International Inc.

She also takes issue with the way the project came to be. 

“It is absolutely typical of the [Doug] Ford government that they give the city no say while they interfere in one of our core responsibilities,” she said. 

In response to Saxe’s concerns, a spokesperson for the ministry of transportation said Ontario’s roads “are among the safest in North America.” The spokesperson added the province has permitted automated vehicle testing in locations across the province.

While Magna International Inc. said the company has spent months engaging with all levels of government and promised the vehicles would not operate in bike lanes, Saxe said if the city were to have a say, she’d want more information before voting on the project. 

Pilot project will have several safety precautions

Magna is instituting several safeguards during the pilot, according to the staff report. 

Those include: 

• The vehicles won’t be able to travel faster than 32 kilometres per hour and will stay on roads with speed limits below 40 kilometres per hour. 
• The vehicles will not perform left turns, to reduce the chance of collisions. 
• The vehicles are “small and light” to reduce the potential consequences of any collision.

The vehicles will also be trailed by a car with two people in it, who can stop them in an emergency. Another person will remotely monitor the vehicle’s 360-degree cameras and can take over control of the robot.

Academics optimistic about pilot project

While Saxe has concerns, some who study the field of autonomous vehicles are happy to see the pilot come to Toronto. 

The goal of this type of project is to complete short deliveries, known as last-mile, according to Steven Waslander, director of the Toronto Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Toronto.

“It’s a convenience service,” he said. “It lowers the cost slightly of operating the vehicle. So it has real benefits commercially.”

Autonomous vehicle technology is something that’s coming to our streets one way or another, said Bilal Farooq, Canada research chair in disruptive transportation technologies and services at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

WATCH | Director of U of T’s AI lab optimistic about project:

Self-driving cars are coming to Toronto. Is the city ready?

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Duration 6:07

Ontario has approved a pilot program that will see driverless delivery cars in some of Toronto’s neighbourhoods, but some Torontonians are questioning the process and benefits of the vehicles. CBC’s Metro Morning spoke to one expert who says he’s optimistic about the program.

“So in that context, I think it’s a good use case to test and learn from it,” he said. “Trying to experiment and trying to evaluate in a controlled manner, I think it’s an encouraging direction.” 

Though based on the information he’s seen about the project so far, Farooq would like to see more about how the vehicles will actually execute a delivery stop. 

“They won’t just be stopping in the middle of a road,” he said. Adding the vehicles will need to pull over and reenter traffic.

The city’s report says the robots will park in available curbside space, then people will walk to it to grab their delivery.