On Monday, March 6^th, Mayor Jim Watson and Sir Terry Matthews, of Wesley Clover International, led a delegation to Queen’s Park.

The delegation was made up of key Ottawa leaders in research and development, commercialization, innovation, and economic development, and included our very own CEO, Michael Tremblay, and Managing Director of Investment and Trade, Blair Patacairk. At the top of their agenda, the fields of autonomous vehicles and next generation networks.

Premier Kathleen Wynne, Ministers, and Ottawa leaders at Queen’s Park.

Canada has a long history of leadership in innovative communications technology, and as our city continues to grow it is very clear that Ottawa has the resources, brainpower, and an appetite to play a leading role in developing a sophisticated autonomous automotive vehicle industry and advanced next-generation networks in Ontario. We are home to a vibrant tech hub; over 60 companies providing technology specific to connected/autonomous vehicles; and multiple post-secondary academic institutions with strong computer sciences and related faculties. Finally, Monday’s Queen’s Park mission clearly demonstrated the community’s willingness to collaborate to achieve these goals.

Here at IO we are excited to work with QNX, the City of Ottawa and a number of other companies to developing a connected/autonomous vehicle test circuit on public roads. Early this summer, Ottawa will launch the first ever test track on active city streets in the Kanata North Research Park. The test area will be fully equipped with the latest GPS and telecommunications technology, and will allow for the connected/autonomous vehicle to connect in real time to live City traffic lights and street lighting.