Mason says Alberta government is preparing for day self-driving vehicles hit province’s roads

Transportation Minister Brian Mason says self-driving vehicles are bearing down fast and the Alberta government is trying to be ready.

Mason told the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association annual convention last week that he’s asked his department to “reorient” its work to prepare for the rise of automated vehicles and other “disruptive technologies.”

“Certainly, with automated vehicles, they’re coming, I think, quicker than people realize. And I think 10 years from now our roads are going to look very different than they do today,” he said.

Mason said the rise of selfdriving vehicles has significant implications for transit, trucking and personal transportation, and makes long-range infrastructure planning difficult for the department.

“Will we need to build roads in the same way? What does it mean for funding for transit and for LRT, for example. Will those technologies become outdated? We don’t know the answers to that,” he said.

Mason was responding to a question from Edmonton city councillor Andrew Knack, who called for new guidelines from the province to allow testing of automated vehicles.

Knack said Alberta’s winter climate made it a desirable location for testing of autonomous vehicles, but municipalities and the private sector are having a difficult time receiving approval from the province.

While “automated vehicles will be a reality in our day-to-day lives,” the province is lagging behind jurisdictions such as Ontario, said Knack.

The Ontario government has launched a five-year, $80-million program to develop an Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network, with a demonstration test zone planned for Stratford.

Last summer, Calgary city council approved a motion asking city administration to collaborate with Calgary Economic Development to study the merits of testing automated vehicles on Calgary’s roadways.

If the idea is found to be sound, the city would then request the province introduce legislation that would pave the way for selfdriving vehicles to legally drive on city streets.

The province said this summer it had also been approached about a potential proposal to test “platooning” a convoy of trucks — a driver in the lead vehicle, followed by driverless trucks — but Mason’s office said last week the government is moving cautiously around the issue.

The government struck a project team in 2016 to consider the implications around driverless vehicles and deal with anticipated requests for testing, but there is no timeline for its report to Mason.