Transport committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the committee for this invitation to be here. Self-driving cars have tremendous benefits for Canada and for Canadians. Unfortunately, when I look around the world, and especially at the G7, we in Canada are dead last in getting ready for s

Transport committee  We are the latecomers, and I think there are two reasons for that. I don't want to get too much into politics. I'm an engineer. I don't know much about politics, but I feel up until now we've not had enough of a focus on innovation, and that shows up in the results. I look at ot

Transport committee  I think we need a number of things. As I mentioned, a year ago I wrote and published a white paper. In it there are 30 recommendations as to what I feel the federal government should be doing. A lot of those transpose into provincial—

Transport committee  Yes, I will.

Transport committee  I am impressed with the level of expertise and enthusiasm from the technology industry. When I look five or 10 years ahead, not only will the auto sector be completely transformed, there's going to be a convergence between the auto and the tech sectors. At the moment, an average

Transport committee  It's a combination of roles, which certainly includes investment. It includes a much looser regulatory framework. It includes specialized institutions that will be created just to steer this forward. It would include being an active cheerleader for the space. It will certainly in

Transport committee  That's an excellent question, and I agree with you. Looking 10 to 15 years ahead, I see, potentially, the end of infrastructure. There's a lot of work going on with the old Jetsons vision of a driverless car. In Europe, Airbus has spoken about its program to develop a pilotless d

Transport committee  When you asked the question, my mind went back to that very famous quote from Henry Ford that if you had asked people what they wanted in those days, they would have said “faster horses”. When I talk to people today—and I do a lot of speaking—there are three different responses.

Transport committee  Can I start? In January I submitted to the Government of Ontario a white paper specifically on the creation of four AV innovation centres. I'm waiting for some official feedback on that. I know the Ontario government is very keen on that. Premier Wynne has said she wants that t

Transport committee  That's a great question. The answer is obviously, yes. What form that should take, I'm not quite sure, but you've mentioned some options there. I would also add in parallel with that it needs to have an outreach program. We, in CAVCOE, and a partner of ours in Paris have just re

Transport committee  One of the most honest conversations I had a while back was with one of the municipalities in the GTA. They acknowledged that they had trouble getting their arms around the whole issue of self-driving cars and the impact on their cities. It's huge. It's multi-faceted. One of the

Transport committee  Thank you. Again, that's an excellent question. Small towns will find a real benefit in intelligent mobility. A friend of mine has a mother who lives in Arnprior. As many of you know, it is a small town, 100 kilometres to 150 kilometres from here. There's no bus service. My frie

Transport committee  Will do.

Transport committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, and thank you all for the opportunity to testify. I am going to be frank and honest in my comments this afternoon, but I will be polite. In June 2014 the federal government asked the Honourable David Emerson to review the Canada Transpor

Transport committee  It's a very good question, and I agree with my colleague David Ticoll here. As I said in my testimony, the place to start—and we're both agreed—is the Canadian AV institute. As David said, there's a long list of other things that government should be doing, and for that I refer