The Ontario government has announced that it is investing C$4.5m through the Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network (OVIN) to launch the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) Innovation Corridor, transforming a 40km stretch of the QEW highway between Burlington and Toronto into a proving ground for advanced vehicle technologies and mobility innovation.
“Ontario is home to world‑class innovators, and this initiative helps ensure their ideas are developed and deployed right here at home,” said Prabmeet Sarkaria, the province’s Minister of Transportation. “Working with OVIN, we’re accelerating the adoption of made‑in‑Ontario technologies that drive economic growth and create good‑paying jobs across the province.”
Living lab for new mobility technologies
Through the QEW Innovation Corridor, a portion of the QEW will become a testbed and living lab for emerging transportation and mobility technologies. The program will provide up to C$150,000 to Ontario-based small and medium enterprises to pilot innovative transportation and advanced mobility solutions, with a focus on electrification, smart mobility, infrastructure and connected vehicle applications. The corridor will facilitate collaborative piloting opportunities and strategic partnerships to support the safe evaluation of advanced technologies.
“Ontario is a global leader in the automotive and mobility sector, cultivating economic growth and supporting homegrown companies while partnering with global leaders to create good-paying jobs,” added Raed Kadri, head of OVIN. “The QEW Innovation Corridor is pivotal in the effort to bring together government and industry to showcase Ontario-made technologies and accelerate the next generation of solutions that will move people and goods.”
Nine Ontario-based companies have been selected through the initial intake to pilot their advanced automotive and mobility technologies in areas such as queue warning systems, work-zone safety, predictive traffic management and in-vehicle traveler information.
Reducing barriers to commercialization
“The QEW Innovation Corridor enables Ontario innovators to test and validate new mobility technologies in real-world conditions,” said Dr Claudia Krywiak, president and CEO of the Ontario Centre of Innovation. “By bringing together government, industry and innovators, we are reducing barriers to commercialization and supporting the deployment of made-in-Ontario transportation solutions.”
Technologies and solutions that can be piloted include smart work zones and work zone safety, congestion management technologies, incident response management, predictive traffic management, road hazard warning, in-vehicle traveler information, coordination and dissemination of real-time traveler information, data analytics, cybersecurity and geofencing.
The program will help the Ontario Ministry of Transportation identify and evaluate technologies that improve transportation safety, sustainability, efficiency and accessibility, while providing opportunities to challenge traditional methods of data collection and analysis to best support user-centric and evidence-based decision making.
In related news, Uber launches AV Labs to collect long-tail autonomous vehicle data