Meridian met with the Minister of Transport for Canada, the Honourable Marc Garneau, for a roundtable, along with representatives of CCAV, the Transport Systems Catapult, and Aurrigo.

Amongst the topics discussed were:

  • The UK’s experience with regulatory and technical challenges associated with deployment of connected and automated vehicles (CV/AV)
  • Public policy and social issues related to CV/AV (safety standards, infrastructure, cyber security, privacy, and public awareness)
  • Future international collaboration

The recurring theme in all conversations with international colleagues is that safety is the key area for collaboration. From this starting point three further questions developed; the need for infrastructure and how infrastructure can enable the accelerated deployment of self-driving vehicles and the associated services; the importance of data and how it is enhanced and progressed from source to use in service; and the topic of trust in relation to cyber security and certification.

Meridian will continue the conversation with the team from Canada and look forward to meeting at the Meridian round table at ITS World Congress in September: the topics centring on effective approaches to international collaboration and actions to accelerate realisation of the benefits from connected and self-driving systems.