A group of 13 different Canadian automotive and technology companies announced this week the creation of Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE) Canada.
Funded through a road safety grant from Transport Canada, the nonprofit coalition will help inform Canadian policymakers, and the public, on the “potential and the reality of automated vehicle technologies and self-driving vehicles.”
“PAVE Canada’s members come from a wide variety of interests, but our diverse group shares two key beliefs: a belief that automated vehicles offer great potential to society, and a belief that we won’t achieve that potential without a well-informed public that understands the technology. We work to provide hype-free facts to the public so that everyone can participate in the conversation about the future of transportation,” said PAVE Executive Director Tara Andringa.
The companies that form the coalition include:
- Algolux
- Audi Canada
- Blackberry
- CAVCOE
- Flir
- Gatik
- !important
- Insurance Office of America (IOA)
- Liberty Mutual
- Quantiv Risk
- Stantec Generation AV
- Travelers
- Toyota Canada
PAVE Canada will engage in “broad activities to help raise the level of public understanding of AV technology.”
The group has three stated goals for the first year are:
- Commission a public opinion survey to establish baselines of public knowledge of automated vehicle technology;
- Develop a social media campaign, based on the results of the survey, that addresses the gaps in knowledge and conveys facts about AV technology; and
- Produce hype-free educational materials to help raise the level of knowledge about AV technology and its potential.
PAVE Canada is a new arm of PAVE, which launched in the United States in 2019.
You can learn more about PAVE Canada here.
