Uber testing autonomous cars in Toronto
Two autonomous Uber cars that have been on Toronto’s streets since August are now periodically driving by themselves, Uber said Friday.

TheStar.com
Oct. 27, 2017
Alina Bykova

Two autonomous Uber cars that have been on Toronto’s streets since August are now periodically driving themselves, Uber said Friday.

The ride-sharing group said that there is always a driver behind the wheel and the operation switches from manual to autonomous mode as they see fit.

“Our vehicles will continue to conduct testing, and may engage in autonomous mode as needed with a driver always behind the wheel. We have obtained a permit from the province for our development testing efforts,” Uber wrote in a statement.

Sarah Abboud, an Uber spokesperson, said the cars are not on the Uber platform and aren’t transporting passengers — there are no immediate plans to have self-driving cars serving customers in Toronto.

All the testing is being done in an area near the University of Toronto.

Uber announced in May that it would open a research group devoted to driverless car technology in Toronto, creating a third hub and its first outside the U.S. for the company’s autonomous vehicle (AV) ambitions.

Last year, Ontario became the first province in Canada to allow on-road testing of AVs.

The Ministry of Transportation is running a pilot program that allows approved companies and research groups to test their vehicles under certain restrictions, including having a driver in the car to constantly monitor vehicle operation.

As of August, seven groups were approved for on-road testing under the pilot program: Uber, the University of Waterloo, the Erwin Hymer Group, QNX, Continental, X-matik Inc., and Magna, the Star reported over the summer.

Though Toronto won’t see any fully autonomous Uber vehicles in the near future, two U.S. cities are part of Uber’s driverless pilot projects right now: Pittsburgh and Phoenix.