GM’s Canadian Engineering Centre to build a fleet of self-driving 2017 Volts

Speaking to the Economic Club in Ottawa this week, GM Canada president and managing director, Steve Carlisle, confirmed that it’s Canadian Engineering Centre in Oshawa, has been awarded a mandate to play a leading role in building a fleet of self-driving 2017 Chevrolet Volt electric vehicles.

“Our Engineering Centre in Oshawa was a logical place to locate this important work and it is the next step in growing the new mandate of the Centre to focus on work related to the Connected Car,” said Carlisle. “The Province of Ontario’s leadership in allowing autonomous vehicle testing was a helpful support in securing this advanced technology work for our Canadian facility.”

The company says its autonomous fleet will first be deployed as part of a broader test program at GM’s Technical Centre in Warren Michigan. Through this program, GM employees will reserve a Volt using a car-sharing app, then select a destination. GM’s autonomous technology will bring the vehicle to its destination and park it. The program will serve as a rapid-development laboratory to provide data and lessons to accelerate GM’s technical capabilities in autonomous vehicles.

In April 2015, GM Canada announced it that had been awarded a new automotive R&D and innovation mandate at its Oshawa Engineering Centre, focused on fast emerging “connected car” and the development of new urban mobility solutions. The company is hiring 100 new software engineers and engaging a growing ecosystem of select Canadian universities, accelerators and suppliers in its mandate.
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