Self-driving vehicles

[H>T&T>P]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

North America’s first autonomous vehicle test track coming to Kanata

By Rosa Saba
Kanata North BIA

Kanata is home to an extensive ecosystem of companies involved in the research and development of autonomous vehicle technology. It’s a diverse field of firms and involves telecom companies led by BlackBerry QNX, Ericsson, Nokia and Juniper Networks; sensor companies such as SMATS and Neptec; companies that specialize in last-mile transportation including Aurrigo; and many more companies in robotics, cybersecurity and connectivity. Post-secondary instutions Algonquin College, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa are also part of this evolving collaborative effort.

Now, Ottawa will receive up to $5 million through the AVIN Program delivered by the Ontario Centres of Excellence to create an integrated AV test environment, the first in North America. This means the addition of a private test track in west Ottawa, plans for which are already underway. Companies will be able to conduct tests that aren’t ready or licensed for public roads yet on the private track.

However, plans have been in the works for at least a year and a half before the funding announcement; Invest Ottawa and the Kanata North Business Association, along with CAVCOE, have been looking for AV opportunities and working on the public track in Kanata North.

“Things are already in motion,” says Kelly Daize, director of global expansion for Invest Ottawa.

In October 2017, BlackBerry QNX used the existing public track for the first-ever AV test using live city infrastructure in North America. Witnesses saw the car stop at a traffic light for a pedestrian crossing.

The track, located in the Kanata technology park, is enabled with short-range wireless communication technology in nine traffic lights as well as a Novatel GPS system. Soon, the track will also have 4G capabilities, cameras, Nokia sensors and a 5G test spectrum from Ericsson and ISED.

Jamie Petten, executive director of the Kanata North Business Association, highlights how this test environment will be right in the backyard of Ottawa’s AV cluster, making it accessible for all the companies involved in AV research and development.

“All of the pieces are coming together for Ottawa to be the AV capital we want it to be,” she says.

Kelly says she sees Ottawa’s AV cluster as a central source of development for the most integral part of AV technology: communication.

“We don’t make the tires, we don’t make the doors … we make the intelligence,” she says.

Don’t expect to be buying your own autonomous vehicle anytime soon, though: Barrie Kirk of CAVCOE explains that while AV technology is already being used in the mining industry, the next place we’re likely to see it used is in farming.

After that will come last-mile pods and then eventually driverless cars, which he predicts will be mostly taxis or ride-sharing vehicles.

“Nobody is going to throw a big switch … it’s gradual,” he says.

https://www.serioustechliveshere.com/nor...ous-vehicle-test-track-coming-to-kanata/

What am I missing about this test track? Tesla's alone have done over 1 billion miles in real life situations. What will a closed loop circuit improve on that the real world is not already throwing at driverless cars. Seems like a waste of time and money but I am not an expert by any means.

[phil235]

Originally Posted by H>T&T>P

What am I missing about this test track? Tesla's alone have done over 1 billion miles in real life situations. What will a closed loop circuit improve on that the real world is not already throwing at driverless cars. Seems like a waste of time and money but I am not an expert by any means.

Also not an expert, but would you not have to test any new technologies on a closed track before getting approval to take it on city streets?

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by phil235

Also not an expert, but would you not have to test any new technologies on a closed track before getting approval to take it on city streets?

Tesla has a huge team, which helps. Invest Ottawa is working with Blackberry to create an innovation hub for autonomous vehicles including university kids, small business, and others looking to get into the space.

Lots of new and weird technology to test. The track is fitted with fixed sensors throughout to provide monitoring of the vehicles on the track (extra data for manufacturers), and also real-world test scenarios such as streetlights and stopsigns which are currently beyond Tesla's capability.

[H>T&T>P]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

Tesla has a huge team, which helps. Invest Ottawa is working with Blackberry to create an innovation hub for autonomous vehicles including university kids, small business, and others looking to get into the space.

Lots of new and weird technology to test. The track is fitted with fixed sensors throughout to provide monitoring of the vehicles on the track (extra data for manufacturers), and also real-world test scenarios such as streetlights and stopsigns which are currently beyond Tesla's capability.

Yes but no for long it seems. But what soon means is up for debate

"Already testing traffic lights, stop signs & roundabouts in development software. Your Tesla will soon be able to go from your garage at home to parking at work with no driver input at all.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2018"

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by H>T&T>P

Yes but no for long it seems. But what soon means is up for debate

"Already testing traffic lights, stop signs & roundabouts in development software. Your Tesla will soon be able to go from your garage at home to parking at work with no driver input at all.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2018"

So Tesla got it right and they don't bend to the will of the oil and gas industry, and they finally turned a $300M profit last quarter (and rising).

Others, like Ford, GM, etc. are hurting and will go belly-up if they don't catch up. Hence why Blackberry has surprisingly become the leader in the space, and these other large automakers are signing on. Plus don't forget that these systems can't be tested in California alone. Just look at the debacle with doors freezing shut on the Model 3.

I've heard through the grapevine that the IO facility is already booked up for the foreseeable future. There's already a large portion of test track ready to go on the farm (like, a few tens of km's), with sensors etc. installed.

These auto manufacturer's are clambering for testing, and they all need their own 'private' test track to keep their secret technology from eachother. Very lucrative for IO.

[rocketphish]

City of Ottawa readies test track in Nepean for autonomous vehicle technologies

Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: January 25, 2019



Ottawa is preparing to open a 16-kilometre test track for cutting-edge autonomous vehicle technologies, the only such facility of its kind in North America, according to Invest Ottawa.

City officials are preparing the failed Ottawa Biotechnology Incubation Centre in a gated area off Woodroffe Avenue, opposite the Nepean Sportsplex for the track, where driverless cars can be developed and tested without entering city streets or endangering the public.

The largely abandoned 1,866-acre property, now being called Ottawa L5, has a closed network of streets, intersections and buildings. It offers car manufacturers an ideal location to test new wireless networking technologies, sensors, car-to-car communications and even emergency crash scenarios on real roads under real world conditions, including Ottawa’s harsh winters and hot summers.



The facility housed biotechnology startups in the early 2000s but closed shortly after the high-tech bubble burst. It’s also the plot of land where the City of Ottawa is planning to build a massive film studio.

The news comes just days after Ontario’s Transportation Minister Jeff Yurek announced that the province would allow unoccupied autonomous vehicles on public roads.

According to Knoxdale-Merivale Ward Coun. Keith Egli, who was previously chair of the city’s transportation committee, city crews have been quietly working at the facility to add stop signs, street markings, street lights and other real-world traffic controls.

“I think it’s very important that we have a facility in Ottawa where we can test the vehicles and make sure that they are working properly and safely,” said Egli. “Our traffic services partners have been working to make it a real functioning site.

“They are working to make a standard road network with traffic control, signs, roadway markings. It in every way will mimic a general use road, which of course is what you want to have.”

According to Invest Ottawa, a more formal grand opening and demonstrations of the facility and its cars are being planned for March.

While the intersections and roadways are ready now, future development on the site includes a 5.2-km “high speed” test loop for the vehicles, according to plans on Ottawa L5’s website.

While the location for the facility is new — previous attempts to allow driverless cars to roam free in Ottawa had been limited to Kanata North — the initiative was initially announced in May, when Invest Ottawa revealed a $5-million grant to the project by the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) Program. Actual investment in the facility is expected to be far higher — several large technology firms have installed millions of dollars worth of new communications technology.

AVIN is a government-funded program aimed at assembling partners from across the province to build clusters specializing in various parts of autonomous vehicle technologies. Thanks to its history in networking and communications, Ottawa is being tasked with fine tuning the technology that will allow vehicles to talk to one another and the world around them, including communicating with street lights and other street signs.

“That’s turning into quite an interesting piece of property,” Egli said. “We know that autonomous vehicles are going to become part of our landscape, but we also know that it’s important with any significant addition like that that we get it right.

The land the facility sits on is also being eyed for a four-stage film studio. The land is owned by the National Capital Commission, which is also a partner in the test track. The film studio has already passed necessary exemptions that could permit construction to begin in the spring.

The AVIN announcement, allocating $80 million over five years, also provided funding for Toronto companies to work on artificial intelligence for cars. Waterloo researchers will be working on positional and mapping technologies. Durham Region researchers will work on the way people interact with their autonomous vehicles. While Windsor and London, Ont., will specialize in issues pertaining to cybersecurity.

The University of Ottawa, Algonquin College and Carleton University will partner in the initiative. Corporate partners involved in the test track include, Blackberry QNX, Nokia, Juniper Networks, Ericsson, and IBM.

The Government of Canada announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a $40-million deal with Nokia under which the Finnish telecom giant will conduct research into fifth-generation — or 5G — cellular networks in various locations across Canada. Nokia will provide 5G technologies at the Nepean facility to allow the vehicles to communicate with each another.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...pean-for-autonomous-vehicle-technologies

[J.OT13]

I'm not a fan of autonomous vehicles, but if we're getting them, might as well develop the technology here.

I assume the test track and film studio can co-exist in harmony?

[dougvdh]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm not a fan of autonomous vehicles, but if we're getting them, might as well develop the technology here.

I assume the test track and film studio can co-exist in harmony?

They plan to share car crashes (its all about economy).

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by dougvdh

They plan to share car crashes (its all about economy).

[J.OT13]

Start your engines: Ottawa’s private AV test track opening soon

Rosa Soba
February 4, 2019
Ottawa Business Journal

Ottawa’s private autonomous vehicle test track, the first of its kind in North America, is almost open for business.

The Ottawa L5 test facilities, housed on the 1,866-acre National Capital Commission Greenbelt Research Farm in Nepean, boast a 16-kilometre stretch of private roadway that’s almost done being fitted with the latest communications technology for a fully integrated test environment.



The track accompanies the public test track already in place in Kanata North, which allows for the testing of more developed technologies. As well, Ontario opened the province’s roads to autonomous vehicle testing as of Jan. 1, 2019, albeit with strict conditions.

Unlike public testing, companies and researchers can try out much more advanced technologies on the L5 track, which is outfitted with GPS, short-range communications (DSRC), Wi-Fi, 4G/LTE, and 5G communications infrastructure. The infrastructure also includes sensors and high-definition cameras. Demonstrations are planned in the coming months, according to the Invest Ottawa website.

L5, or level five, refers to a vehicle’s scale of autonomy, with level five being fully self-driving.

Invest Ottawa first announced the development of the track in May 2018, supported by a $5-million grant from the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN) program. Less than a year later, the roadways and intersections have been built and the test track is almost ready for use. Future developments will include a 5.2-km high-speed test loop, according to the website.

Ottawa is home to a multitude of internationally-known communications companies including L5’s founding partners, BlackBerry QNX, Ericsson, Nokia and Juniper Networks along with the NCC and the city of Ottawa. Autonomous vehicles have been on the city’s radar for a while now: In 2017, Ford opened an autonomous vehicles R&D centre in Kanata North, and in 2018 BlackBerry QNX partnered with local accelerator L-Spark to create an autonomous vehicle technology incubation program that is currently mentoring companies from across Canada including a few local firms.

https://obj.ca/techopia-ottawa-private-autonomous-vehicle-testing-track-l5

[rocketphish]

Aurrigo to test autonomous pods at L5 track in Ottawa

By: Craig Lord, OBJ
Published: Apr 1, 2019 3:02pm EDT



An autonomous shuttle-maker will be among the first companies to put its vehicles through the paces at Ottawa’s custom-made test facilities this spring.

United Kingdom-based Aurrigo, which develops self-driving pods for the “first and last mile” of transportation, arrived in Ottawa roughly a year ago. The firm announced last week it has signed a deal to test and validate two of its pods at Ottawa’s L5 Connected and Autonomous Vehicles test facilities.

Managed by Invest Ottawa, the private L5 site opened last month as a safe testbed for autonomous vehicles and the systems that support them. Industry heavyweights such as Ericsson, Nokia and BlackBerry QNX have outfitted the site with millions of dollars in connectivity technology.

“There is no place like it in North America to test,” Kelly Daize, Invest Ottawa’s autonomous vehicles program director, recently told OBJ. “My hope is it will allow us to adopt this technology faster and safer.”

Aurrigo’s pods will first be tested at the private test site off Woodroffe Avenue and later at the public track in the Kanata North tech park.

Aurrigo’s vice-president of autonomous programs Chris Keefe tells Techopia the company’s team from England will be in Ottawa in two weeks to map out the 16-kilometre private test track in Ottawa’s south end. There, Aurrigo will test the pods’ sensors and responses to signage and various communication arrays in a controlled and monitored environment.

Though Aurrigo’s pods have been deployed recently in Asia and a few Scandinavian countries, Ottawa’s climate offers AV companies a four-season testing ground available in few other locales. In an interview with Techopia on Monday, Keefe says he’s left a pod sitting outdoors today to monitor any significant drain on the batteries.

“I’m a little sad we missed the dead of winter,” says Keefe, who notes this past weekend’s last burst of snowy weather made for a fun testing environment.

“Weather conditions that are less than ideal – sleet, snow, freezing rain – we have to contend with just like you would in any other vehicle. We really think this is the place to do it,” Keefe told Techopia Live last year.

Aurrigo isn’t the only local company that will benefit from having the pods on-site. Other companies, such as Internet of Things device-maker SmartCone, will be able to test how their smart city applications work with full-scale autonomous systems.

“We’re going to find out what our integration together as a team is going to look like,” Keefe says.

• Video Link

https://obj.ca/techopia-aurrigo-autonomous-pods-test-L5-ottawa

[AuxTown]

This is very exciting. My only concern will be having to drive the speed limit all the time once my car takes over, particularly on the 417 where 100km/hr seems painfully slow. Anyone think we could be looking at 120km/hr once the cars are running the show?

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by O-Town Hockey

This is very exciting. My only concern will be having to drive the speed limit all the time once my car takes over, particularly on the 417 where 100km/hr seems painfully slow. Anyone think we could be looking at 120km/hr once the cars are running the show?

This will be interesting once self-driving cars start mixing with regular traffic and will presumably be strictly following the speed limit everywhere. Road rage anybody?

[AuxTown]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

This will be interesting once self-driving cars start mixing with regular traffic and will presumably be strictly following the speed limit everywhere. Road rage anybody?

I'm sure they will routinely stop at yellows

And not put the pedal down when the walk counter is down to the last few seconds!

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

This will be interesting once self-driving cars start mixing with regular traffic and will presumably be strictly following the speed limit everywhere. Road rage anybody?

This will actually be annoying.

[lrt's friend]

I expect that we will see the number of rear end collisions to increase and the big companies profiting from driverless cars will lobby for exclusive road access. Within my lifetime?

[Dengler Avenue]

Then those companies need to pay for them. No excuses, no exceptions. ._.

[zzptichka]

Shouting and honking at a robot is kinda stupid.
I expect people will be annoyed at first but eventually will accept it as a given and it will actually lead to better driving habits all around.

[ssiguy]

Autonomous cars also open up huge number of questions in terms of responsibility.

If you car gets into an accident which they invariably all will, then what happens. Snow, ice, mechanical/computer errors will continue to exists regardless of whether the car is self driving or not. So what happens to insurance? If your car hits another one due to mechnical/compiuter error, are you still responsible? If the car was doing the driving does that mean any insurance you must pay could be recouped by suing the car company? How can you be held responsible for your driving when you weren't even driving? Isn't that akin to be held personally responsible if your taxi get's into an accident? Is drunk 'driving' now considered legal if your car is doing the driving?

Will we even have driving test or legal limits anymore? Again, isn't that like having to be a certain age or have a driver's liscense to take a cab? You don't have to be a certain age or have a lift certification to take an elevator. You don't have to have a liscense to take a bus. What's the difference? Driverless cars are, when you get right to the basics, are nothing but a personal taxi service. Does this also mean that driving is no longer a privledge but a right like taking a bus or cab?

Autonomous cars maybe much further down the road than we think. Even if the technology is perfected, it will take years or even decades of endless court cases to determine the amount, if any, responsibility a person has for an accident. If it is decided by the courts that it is the manufacturer that bears responsibility, then all the car makers will quickly retreat finding that their autonomous cars are costing them a fortune.

[rocketphish]

The future is now: It's opening day for Ottawa's self-driving car test-track

Vito Pilieci, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: May 18, 2019



Invest Ottawa officially took the wraps off of its autonomous vehicle test track in Nepean on Friday morning, showcasing the facility and the technology it has under development there to the world.

The track, which is the only one of its kind in North America, has been given the name “Ottawa L5” and is located across the street from the Nepean Sportsplex, off Woodrofe Avenue. It features 16 kilometers of paved roads, multiple intersections, cross walks, one-way streets, street lights, a speed bump and even bike lanes. Basically, every feature that would be seen on a real road has been crammed into the contained test facility.

“The City recognizes the tremendous opportunity this presents to grow and diversify our local economy,” said Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson. “Not only are we demonstrating that Ottawa is a global leader in autonomous vehicles; we will also capitalize on the facility by testing new technologies that will help improve the lives of our residents.”

The facility has been created through a partnership between the City of Ottawa, the National Capital Commission (which owns the land on which Ottawa L5 runs) and several private sector businesses.

The new track isn’t just being used to test cars.

• Nokia and Ericsson are using it as a test bed for next generation (5G) wireless technologies, which include testing special public safety cellular technologies that could lay the test bed for the future of emergency communication’s systems.
• SmartCone Technologies Inc. is using the roadway to test its new traffic cone, which has the ability to send signals to cars that tell them a lane is closed ahead for construction or a parade.
• Sensors have been embedded into parts of the pavement, which have the ability to gauge weather and temperature conditions, sending alerts to oncoming vehicles of black ice or wet roadways so they can slow down.
• Microsoft Corp. is also at the site, testing its cloud computing abilities.

The vehicles and sensors at L5 produce massive amounts of data that must be stored, catalogued and processed in order to be useful. Companies like Microsoft will be key in helping with that component of any autonomous vehicle technologies that eventually make their way to the mainstream market.

Seeing technologies make it to the mainstream market is what Invest Ottawa is trying to accomplish at the new research facility. Any technology that proves itself at L5 — which is a closed network of roadways where people can’t be hurt if something goes wrong — could be deployed to Ottawa’s public autonomous vehicle testing track, which is made of a series of actual intersections that are in use by commuters daily in Kanata.

“We are entering an era of profound transformation where automation will be brought about by the digitalization and connection of everything and everyone,” said Shawn Sparling, head of Nokia’s Enterprise and Public Sector Business for Canada. “It is initiatives like the Ottawa L5 test facility that play a critical role in building and testing the ecosystem needed to address the extremely demanding requirements of the burgeoning connected and autonomous vehicle market, as well as bringing broad innovation to cities.”

The new facility has been made possible thanks to a $5 million grant from the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN), which is administered by Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). It’s also received around $6 million worth of technology, which has been donated to the facility from partners like Ericsson, Nokia and Microsoft, as well as others.

OCE saw its funding slashed earlier this month by Ontario’s PC government. Andrew Robertson, a spokesman for OCE, wouldn’t provide any specifics about how deep the government’s cut are or what impact they will have on funding initiatives like Ottawa L5 in the future.

The money already provided to Ottawa L5 will allow it to operate for at least the next three years.

Several PC MPPs were on hand for the Ottawa L5 announcement on Friday. Despite the funding cutbacks, they all showed support for the facility.

“Ontario is home to over 200 companies developing connected and autonomous vehicle technologies — this places us at a major advantage when it comes to designing and building the next generation of vehicles,” said Todd Smith, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. “Technology has blurred the line between a car company and a tech company.”

Although the Friday event marked the facility’s official launch, officials with the facility said more than 36 companies have already used the facility to run tests on various technology. And more companies are coming.

Invest Ottawa chief executive officer Michael Tremblay said the next challenge for Ottawa L5 will be in building a business model that allows it to operate as a stand alone entity that doesn’t rely on funding from government. He said Accenture has been brought in to prepare a business plan for the facility, which would spell out how it charges its customers to use the test track. The business plan is expected within the next six weeks.

[email protected]

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/its-opening-day-for-ottawas-self-driving-car-test-track