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Ontario self-driving test program gets no applications

July 9th, 2016  |  Auto

Last year the provincial government was proud to announce that Ontario would become the first Canadian province to allow companies to test autonomous vehicles on its roads beginning January 1, 2016. But seven months later and Ontario has yet to see a single autonomous car tested on its roads and it doesn’t seem like anyone’s interested either.

According to Globe and Mail, the lack of applications was first noticed by Reuters through a freedom of information request. Despite Ontario being a central hub for technology and the automotive sector, there isn’t a high demand for companies to move testing to Canada even if they have research and development teams in the province.

Honda, General Motors, Google, and parts supplier Magna International all either told Globe and Mail that they have no plans to participate in Ontario’s testing program or declined to comment. A spokesperson from Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation said that the program has received plenty of interest even though nobody has applied.