The Autonomous Vehicle Demo 2017 left Kanata North buzzing about self-driving cars all day.

Earlier today, CENGN joined other companies located in the Kanata North Technology Park including members and partners  Nokia, Juniper Networks, Mitel, and Invest Ottawa, to witness Canada’s first ever demonstration of autonomous vehicles on public city streets. The event also marked the first testing of Blackberry QNX’s autonomous concept car connected to live city infrastructure.

An autonomous vehicle (AV) is a self-driving car with an inbuilt capacity to sense its environment and navigate without human input. In addition to autonomous features, the Blackberry QNX AV has connected vehicle (CV) technologies which allows it to communicate with other vehicles and its surroundings in general. These technologies represent a momentous development in this era of artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, solidifying Canada’s place among the world’s most technologically advanced countries.

Presently, there are over 70 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), multinationals and other organizations in Ottawa that are directly contributing expert knowledge, technology and intelligence to the evolution of connected cars and autonomous vehicles. Given CENGN’s mission to support the advancement of next generation technologies, we were stoked to see this brilliant innovation in action. We are also proud of the fact that CENGN is a main contributor to the connectivity, research and leadership involved in putting autonomous vehicles on the road!

During the showcase, we got to experience the AV firsthand, watching the vehicle detect road markings, take turns and brake automatically to avoid obstructions in its path. This was the first ever Canadian demonstration of autonomous vehicles pairing with city infrastructure, and definitely not the last. In fact, it would not be surprising if driverless cars became the norm over the next decade, all the while improving traffic congestion, environmental friendliness and quality of transportation around the world. Overall, the first testing of Autonomous Vehicles proved to be a huge success.

A big congratulations goes out to Kanata North Business Association, the City of Ottawa, Invest Ottawa and Blackberry QNX who partnered to organize this amazing demo. We at CENGN cannot wait for Canada to have its first commercialized smart car!

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About the Author

CENGN, Canada’s Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks, drives technology innovation and industry growth through our testbed, technical expertise, talent development, and partner ecosystem. Through our projects, CENGN enables small and medium Canadian Enterprises to test and validate promising technologies, removing barriers to product commercialization and accelerating market growth.

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