Waymo launching self-driving taxi testing in Toronto

Waymo says its self-driving cars are coming to the city. It's the robo-taxi company's first foray into Canada. Megan Fitzpatrick is following this story and joins us now. And Megan, what can you tell us about today's announcement? Well, Kelda, Waymo has been operating in several U.S. cities for a few years now. But as you mentioned, this will be a first for the company to be operating in Canada. They recently got approval under Ontario's automated vehicle pilot program. There would have been certain criteria. they had to meet in order to get accepted and there will be certain rules for Waymo to follow as part of that pilot project in terms of the timeline for the rollout here the company is saying in the coming days Torontonians will start seeing the vehicles on the roads but this will be a phased in approach so step one is mapping mapping out the local street network here in Toronto for those vehicles to follow followed by a testing period as well the company not saying exactly how long that will last. But they did say the goal is to start offering Waymo to passengers in 2028. So it's still going to be quite some time before Waymo will be an option available to people in Toronto. The company's saying this is expected to create hundreds of jobs. They're also partnering with a company, a Toronto-based company, for their fleet management services. And these jobs is something that has Flavio Volpe excited, a key member of the auto sector here in Ontario, in Canada. He is welcoming this news. Let's take a listen to what he says about it. Waymo is going to put the world's best product on the roads here in Toronto. And it's going to be a really big boon to all in the automotive technology space. And banging metal and melting plastic is very, very important. But how that metal and plastic travels, the most advanced technologies, the AI in the vehicles and in the smart infrastructure is a place that Canada currently plays. And it's why I think that the government of Ontario and the city of Toronto landed this. So some excitement about the future of this sector, but other sectors not so welcoming of this news, including the taxi industry here in Toronto. We have heard from Beck Taxi, who don't seem too keen on the potential of adding this service for Torontonians. They say, at the same time as we attempt to protect Canadian sovereignty, we have yet another billion-dollar American company ready to take ownership of our roads. We've also heard from Uber, who says they envision a hybrid system in the years ahead of driverless vehicles alongside human-driven vehicles. And they say it's how the technology is used that matters. and they are noting that it's still quite some time before Waymo will be an option here and they say that time until 2028 should be used for the government and industry to come up with certain safety standards and looking at the impact that Waymo could potentially have on jobs in the city. And Megan, you know, some people have concerns about getting into a driverless car. What are you hearing from Torontonians? I'm hearing some mixed reviews and mixed views of whether people would take a Waymo or not. One woman saying hell no when I asked her if she would take one. Others saying they are open to it and they feel like this is where technology is headed and they say people should embrace it. Here's some of what I was hearing. It is safety, but I just have a real problem with seeing human jobs and opportunities being taken away because you're letting technology do it for you. Like, I have a real problem. No, I think it might be cool. I don't know, yeah. We don't really interact with the driver. I take an Uber, and you sort of don't even notice that there's somebody driving, so, yeah, it could be interesting. Would I take one? Absolutely not, because I'd rather a human drive a vehicle than a computer. It's pretty simple. So I think you just have to adapt to it. I think that's my opinion. Yeah, so I would embrace it. So some yeses, some noes. Some people are saying they'll have to wait and see, and they will have that time to make their decisions because, again, it's not until 2028 that Waymo is expected to start offering their services openly, publicly to passengers. Kelda? Thanks so much for this, Megan. Megan Fitzpatrick reporting for us.