Invest Ottawa opens new CAV test facility in Canada

Invest Ottawa, lead economic development agency for Canada’s Capital for knowledge-based industries, together with the Government of Ontario and strategic partners, officially launched the Ottawa L5 Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) Test Facilities.

This will promote the growth of CAV firms, and the development new CAV solutions, firms, talent, and high-value jobs. With the fit-up of the Ottawa L5 well underway, more than three dozen SMEs and firms are already using the public and private tracks to support CAV R&D, commercialisation and testing.

Currently valued at more than $11 million, the Ottawa L5 leverages $5 million in anchor provincial investment through the Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network (AVIN), an initiative delivered by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) on behalf of the Government of Ontario; and more than $6 million in in-kind contributions from internationally recognised public and private partners. These include: Accenture; Avanade; Blackberry QNX; the City of Ottawa; Ericsson; Juniper Networks; the National Capital Commission (NCC); Microsoft; and Nokia.

With a strong focus on safety, the Ottawa L5 will enable innovators, entrepreneurs, small- and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) and multinationals to advance the safe development, validation and implementation of CAVs. It will help firms to address key CAV opportunities and challenges including: CAV operations in inclement weather; safety and security; interoperability, data collection and analytics; and connectivity.

These world-class testing grounds enable Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) testing in Ottawa's true four-season weather climate, with temperatures that range from +37 to -38 degrees Celsius, and harsh winter conditions marked by heavy snow, sleet, and ice. Comprised of a public and private CAV test track, the Ottawa L5 is equipped with 5G, 4G/LTE, GPS (RTK), dedicated short range communications (DSRC), and Wi-Fi telecommunications and networking infrastructure, making it the first integrated CAV test environment of its kind in North America.

These capabilities, coupled with Ottawa's globally recognised industry leadership and expertise in CAVs, telecommunications and security, create a powerful environment for innovators, SMEs and multinationals to test, validate and demonstrate V2X CAV technologies and solutions. This will increase the competitiveness of firms that put these capabilities to work, helping them to further capitalize on the growing CAV global market.

The official Ottawa L5 launch brought together hundreds of stakeholders from industry, academia and government, and created the opportunity to experience CAV technology first-hand through live demonstrations on the private CAV test track.