General Motors is making a big investment in self-driving car research and development in Canada by adding up to 1,000 engineers over the next few years.
The NewsWheel reports that GM Canada is expanding R&D into autonomous vehicles by hiring between 300 and 1,000 engineers for its new Automotive Software Development Center in Markham, Ontario.
GM will also invest another $10 million in a Cold Weather testing center in Kapuskasing, which will trial new cars in various climatological and environmental conditions.
“We selected Canada for this expansion because of its clear capacity for innovation, proven talent and strong ecosystem of great universities, startups and innovative suppliers,” said Mark Reuss, GM Executive Vice President, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain. “With this expansion, GM Canada will play an important role in our evolution toward vehicles that are connected, autonomous, shared and electric.”
GM’s new research emphasis will focus on three key areas: Infotainment, and Connected Vehicle Technology; Active Safety and Vehicle Dynamics Technology; and Autonomous Vehicle Software & Controls Development.
GM Canada also opening its Urban Mobility Campus
This latest research expansion follows GM Canada’s opening earlier this year of the 2908 Communitech Innovation Lab in Waterloo, Ontario that focuses on connected vehicle technology and incubating urban mobility. As well, GM announced plans this spring for a new Urban Mobility Campus in Toronto that will house R&D facilities among other facilities.
In other big moves in the autonomous vehicle segment, General Motors recently acquired Cruise Automation for $1 billion and invested an additional $500 million into Lyft. GM is looking to establish a significant foothold in the rapidly developing world of self-driving vehicles that is expected to grow astronomically in the coming years. A recent Morgan Stanley report predicted that the global shared mobility market will reach $2.6 trillion annually by 2030.
But it’s not just traditional carmakers getting into the self-driving car game. Major IT players like Google, Apple and Uber are competing hard to master the technology needed to make autonomous cars a global reality.
