Some of Toronto’s streets will soon serve as the testing grounds for Canadian automotive giant Magna International Inc.’s “automated last-mile delivery vehicles,” sparking concerns from city councillors whose wards will be part of the pilot project.
A permit for the project has been approved by the provincial Ministry of Transportation (MTO) and governance falls under the Highway Traffic Act. This means Toronto has no regulatory authority over it nor does the City have a say in any aspect of how it is run.
The pilot will begin in the second quarter of 2025 and will start by deploying one or two of Magna’s Last-Mile Delivery Devices (LMDD). The vehicles will deliver small packages across five wards in the city: all of Davenport and parts of Parkdale-High Park, York South-Weston, University-Rosedale and Toronto-St.Paul’s.
Magna has requested a permit for 20 LMDDs to be deployed over time and approval from the MTO will be required each time the number of vehicles is increased.
As per a City of Toronto report, the LMDDs are three-wheeled vehicles, about the size of a large cargo bike and stand approximately as tall as an average sedan. The vehicles operate autonomously and are not designed to carry a human operator or passenger.
The self-driving vehicle will travel at a speed of up to 32 kilometres an hour and only use streets where the speed limit is 40 kilometres per hour or less. During the pilot, it will be followed by a conventional “chase vehicle” with a driver and a passenger who will supervise the autonomous vehicle.
“The LMDD will also be supported by a remote operator, located in Toronto, who can fully control the LMDD via a secure, dedicated teleoperation driving station. An active voice link is maintained between the remote supervisor and the safety supervisor in the chase vehicle,” said the City report.
When stopping to make a delivery, the self-driving vehicle is expected to park in available curbside space and customers must pickup their delivery from one of its locked compartments, which are protected by a multi-digit code only known to the receiving customer. The chase vehicle will also park near the LMDD during delivery.
The pilot is being conducted under Ontario’s Automated Vehicle Pilot Program, which launched in 2016 “as a 10-year pilot program to permit the testing of automated vehicles (AVs) on Ontario roads by eligible participants,” as per the Province.
Ward councillors raise concerns about congestion, safety and privacy
CityNews reached out to the councillors of the five wards being used during the pilot and three of them responded with numerous concerns about the lack of consultation with city hall as well as congestion, safety and privacy.
Davenport Coun. Alejandra Bravo, whose entire ward will be used for the pilot, told CityNews that city council is responsible and accountable to the people of Toronto and should have a say in such programs.
“I think it’s really important that we have a governance change when it comes to this kind of program where we’re using city streets, that affect city residents,” she said.
The councillor for University-Rosedale, Dianne Saxe, agreed, adding that the pilot program is being forced onto the City under terms and conditions the City is not privy to.
“Magna tells us that the Province has given them a permit and that there are conditions in the permit, but the permit’s a secret, we can’t see the permit, we can’t see the conditions. We won’t don’t have any say in what they are. We won’t be able to enforce them,” she said.
“It’s outrageous for a permit to operate on public property to be secret.”
“The City of Toronto has no information on what their operating conditions are except for what Magna volunteers, and I want to see the proof. I want to read the actual permit to know what they’re allowed to do,” said Parkdale-High Park Coun. Gord Perks.
“Frankly, they should give us the authority to decide whether or not we want these pilots. This should be a local decision made by Torontonians and people like me who represent Toronto.”
CityNews contacted City staff regarding the pilot project and whether they had been consulted or had any say in its operation.
They told CityNews that the MTO requested input from the municipal perspective to inform their decision-making regarding Magna’s application to run the pilot project.
“The City’s comments focused on operational and safety measures including recommending Toronto-specific location and time of day restrictions to avoid particularly busy corridors, avoid delaying TTC shuttle buses in the event of planned or unplanned subway disruptions and enhance safety while crossing major arterial roads,” they said.
“City staff also requested that Magna provide training materials for emergency services personnel and share data collected on the performance of the vehicles and impact on curbside spaces. The City has not been informed by MTO of how this input was incorporated or any conditions or restrictions that may have been added in their approval.”
CityNews reached out to both the MTO and Magna International Inc. regarding the incorporation of City Staff recommendations into the way the pilot will operate, but neither commented on that specific issue.
Congestion concerns
All three councillors CityNews spoke to also expressed concerns about the autonomous vehicles sharing the roads with traffic, cyclists and pedestrians while Toronto deals with an ongoing congestion problem.
Bravo questioned the effect the pilot would have on the City’s congestion management plan while both Saxe and Perks said they felt the pilot was contradictory to Premier Doug Ford’s ongoing fight against congestion in Toronto.
“This is classic Ford overreach. This is City responsibility. We are responsible for the roads. He complains constantly about congestion and blames the city to the extent of — without any legitimate supporting evidence — threatening to take out our bike lanes because of congestion, and he’s forcing these chase vehicles and the autonomous vehicle that don’t go at traffic speed onto our streets with no say,” said Saxe.
Perks said Toronto streets are crowded enough without a product testing program adding to the melee.
“Part of what boggles my mind about this is Premier Ford is hell bent for leather to do all kinds of things to reduce congestion. He wants to tunnel under the 401. He claims that by eliminating our bike lanes he’s reducing congestion even though the evidence says it won’t,” he said.
“Why is he not concerned about adding another vehicle type to Toronto’s roads? Why didn’t he at least talk to us?”
Safety concerns
Saxe and Perks also pointed out that the LMDDs Magna will be piloting in Toronto have only previously been tested for a short time in Birmingham, Michigan, which has a population of around 20,000 people.
The presumed point of the pilot is to test the vehicles in larger cities, navigating traffic, pedestrians, emergency vehicles and so on, but councillors CityNews spoke with said they feel their constituents are being rendered subjects in a potentially unsafe experiment.
“These are not vehicles with software that has been trained to deal with construction crews or someone wearing a crossing guard vest, or little kids who run out on the street. They’re explicitly doing it so that their AI will learn how to deal with these things,” said Perks.
“I asked [Magna] ‘What does it do when a firetruck comes along?’ and they said, ‘We think we’ve got that, but the chase vehicle will look after it.’ And frankly, I don’t think that the people I represent should be guinea pigs for a big multinational corporation to develop a product.”
As a TTC commissioner, Bravo expressed concerns about how the LMDDs will navigate around transit vehicles as well as pedestrians.
“The majority of people in Davenport get around on transit. How will these driverless vehicles, essentially drones, interact with buses, with streetcars, with TTC riders? [These are] densely populated areas. Some have small streets, narrow streets, different kinds of configurations that these robots might not be prepared for. Where’s the guarantee that there won’t be any injury to people using our streets?” she asked
“What happens if the vehicle doesn’t find a parking spot to pull up to? Are people walking into the street to meet this vehicle? Are they coming onto sidewalks?”
Saxe echoed that several spots in her ward have no designated loading areas or places for the autonomous delivery vehicles to pull up safely.
“Is the expectation that they’re going to always be right in front of the house they’re delivering to? Because they’re expecting the person to come out [for pickup]. So if there isn’t a parking space that’s empty right in front of them, or there’s no parking allowed at that hour, are they double parking? Are they going a block away? We have no information. The Province is keeping everything secret,” she said.
An LMDD and chase vehicle possibly operating during rush hour also brings up safety considerations, added Saxe.
“You have two vehicles trying to stay together in busy traffic. So [is the chase vehicle] going to be cutting off people to stay behind this little autonomous thing? What if they get separated?” she asked.
When asked, Magna staff said the LMDDs will not operate on high-speed roads or bike lanes. They said the areas chosen for the pilot avoid dense downtown core areas and busy arterial corridors, limiting interactions with vulnerable road users. The vehicles will also not be deployed in dangerous weather conditions.
They added that they can remotely control the vehicles if needed to address any safety or congestion-related issues. In addition, they said the vehicles are small, weigh under 250 kilograms and have added safety features like a speaker to project sound and a large light on top for visibility.
Privacy concerns
The autonomous vehicles are also equipped with a 360-degree camera and sensors and Magna staff said data from those devices will only be used to improve the autonomous driving system. They said the personal information that might be captured during the course of operations will not be shared except as needed to complete deliveries and data is handled in compliance with applicable privacy laws.
With regards to privacy, the City report said in the images collected by the sensors and cameras, vehicle license plates will be automatically blurred, but faces will not “because Magna believes that pedestrian faces are very useful to determine gaze, pose and intent of motion of a pedestrian or cyclist, such as whether a person is about to cross the path of a vehicle or not.”
All three councillors were not impressed with Magna’s privacy precautions, saying the people in their wards did not sign up to be recorded in such a manner.
“The questions of privacy certainly will be on people’s minds … they’re being recorded, they’re being surveilled just for walking around in the city,” said Bravo.
“I asked [Magna] directly, they will be recording people’s faces, so they’ll be able to potentially identify individuals. I get bland reassurances, ‘Oh, we won’t use the data for anything else,” added Perks.
“But also I’ve been told that some of the data will be sent to and manipulated in the United States where different laws apply. So I do not know what kind of privacy protections will happen once that data is in the United States. In fact, I’ve got real reason to be worried.”
Magna did not confirm to CityNews whether all or portions of the data collected by the LMDDs will be sent to the United States.
“It’s going to have a picture of everybody’s face. They’re not blurring them out because they say they need to be able to see exactly where you’re looking and they’re recording all of that video every time this thing moves around. So if you see this thing go by, you have no privacy,” added Saxe.
“Now what are they doing with that information? How are they protecting it from being hacked? We don’t know. They say, ‘Oh, don’t worry.’ Well, why shouldn’t we worry?”
What’s in it for Toronto?
Apart from all the practical concerns, Perks added that such a pilot project allows private companies to use City resources for their own advancement while causing several potential problems with no measurable benefit to the city.
“The Province of Ontario has said to Magna International, one of the largest car parts manufacturers in the world, go ahead and use City of Toronto streets to develop your product. I asked [Magna] point blank, ‘So you want to use a scarce public resource, our roadways, to enrich yourselves. What’s in it for us?’ And their answer, frankly, is nothing,” said Perks.
“If one of my constituents wants to park their car on a city street, they have to pay for that privilege and Torontonians pay for the roads that they drive on through their property taxes. We pay for this stuff. Magna’s getting a free ride off of us.”
“We can’t bring things from above for no reason that can be really identified as for local benefit,” added Bravo.
“I think it’s time to stop with these corporate experiments that are for profit.”
CityNews reached out to the MTO for a comment or statement about the concerns raised by councillors and did not get a response specific to those queries.
“Ontario’s roads are among the safest in North America,” said MTO senior media relations advisor Julia Caslin.
The pilot program was to be discussed at the Infrastructure and Environment Committee meeting on Wednesday, but Saxe moved to defer the item due to a lack of sufficient information. It will come up next in the committee’s meeting on June 11.
