Waymo self-driving taxis could be coming to Toronto.
As first reported by Matt Elliott in his City Hall Watcher newsletter, the city is in talks with lobbyists for the autononmous ride-hailing division of Alphabet, the parent company of Google. A record of this dated from November 6 is on the official City of Toronto website.
On this page, the city notes that it needs to communicate “about the potential development of by-laws and regulations related to autonomous driving technologies, including as it relates to operational authorizations, commercial operations, goods delivery operations and ridehail operations.”
It’s interesting to hear about a potential Toronto expansion because Waymo isn’t actually widely available in the U.S. As it stands, the service operates in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area and Phoenix, as well as Austin and Atlanta via Uber. That said, it also has plans to extend service to cities like Las Vegas, Miami and San Diego, as well as London, England.
Self-driving cars as a concept is also still novel for Toronto. In May, Canadian auto company Magna International was given provincial approval to run a small autonomous vehicle pilot in Toronto, but city councillors were surprised when the project was ended months ahead of schedule. It’s still unclear exactly why Magna scrapped these plans.
It remains to be seen what, if anything, might come out of Waymo’s talks with government. Perhaps it will have better luck than Quayside, the project from Alphabet-owned Sidewalk Labs to turn part of Toronto into a high-tech “smart city” that was ultimately abandoned in 2020.
Source: City Hall Watcher, City of Toronto
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