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Here’s what you need to know about the driverless vehicle program, including what was in the company’s application, which the provincial government kept sealed from the public.Ìý

Where and when will they run?

Up to 20 automated three-wheeled vehicles will be delivering small packages until the end of the year throughout Davenport, as well as parts of Parkdale-High Park, York South-Weston, University-Rosedale and Toronto-St. Paul’s.

While the vehicles themselves are already out and about, as of Friday Magna has not yet started making deliveries with them, according to a spokesperson for the company.

What is the pilot testing?

Magna is training its artificial intelligence through this pilot program, developing its software in a competitive field, though the company declined to shed light on its ultimate goal.

Meanwhile, for city staff, it’s an opportunity to see what the technology’s limits are in a dense city like Toronto.

“It seems clear that pressure will grow over time to deploy vehicles with various types and levels of automation on º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøstreets,” wroteÌýthe city’s general manager of transportation services Barbara Gray in a report.

Are there any safety rules?

Magna has vowed their vehicles will only operate on roads with a speed limit of 40 km/h or less because its software caps the vehicles’ upper limit to 32 km/h. Each vehicle will be supervised by a “chase car” with a driver and passenger tailing behind, as well as a remote human operator.

However, according to confidential provincial documents obtained by the Star that outline Magna’s licence conditions, the vehicles are allowed to operate on arterial roads at certain hours, which in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøusually have speed limits of 50 km/h.

“Magna does not plan for these vehicles to cross arterial roads during daytime testing, however, may do so during off-peak hours where less traffic is present,” according to the confidential documents.Ìý

The use of automated vehicles for various services has increased recently, but mainly in U.S. states with a warmer climate than Ontario. Magna said itsÌývehicles will not operate in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøduring heavy snow or rain.

According to aÌý, the vehicles will avoid left turns to reduce the chance of collisions and traffic delays. But this is not mandated by the province.

Part of Magna’s licence conditions said the vehicles can make left turns if it is at a three-way intersection with traffic lights and no lane of oncoming traffic, and if it is controlled by the remote operator, according to the confidentialÌýdocuments.

The confidential documents sealed by the province also include city staff’s concerns — among them key requests the Ministry of Transportation rebuffed.

For one thing, “to mitigate safety risks” city staff had asked the province to keep these vehicles off Bloor Street between Avenue Road and Christie Street, and for the vehiclesÌýto travel no more than one consecutive block on Bloor anywhere west of Christie.

City staff also asked the province to prevent these vehicles from operating during afternoon rush hour on weekdays north of Bloor on Bathurst and Dufferin streets, and any streets south of Bloor.

The ministry response said these requests were not “viable” restrictions, “as it presents challenges and would make data collection difficult.”

How will it work?

Deliveries could include any retail goods such as groceries, meals, pharmaceuticals or clothing.

The vehicles,Ìýcarrying packages stored in locked compartments, will park in a curbside space. If there isn’t a free parking space, the vehicle will stop at the nearest legal location, and a person in the chase vehicle will help with the delivery.

Customers will unlock the compartment with a multi-digit access code. As for receiving the code, “we anticipate it will be via retailer application, similar to ride-hailing notifications when a vehicle has arrived,” the Magna spokesperson said.

Who gets any traffic tickets?

According to theÌý, each vehicle gets its own licence plate and the company has liability insurance of $5 million per incident, as required under the province’s Highway Traffic Act.

But º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøpolice have yet to figure out with the city and the Ministry of Transportation what or who to ticket if there’s any infraction because the legislation is drafted so law enforcement writes tickets to human drivers, not autonomous vehicles.

“In the meantime, if there is a scenario in which a driverless vehicle commits a (traffic) violation, TPS officers will engage with the human supervisors of these driverless vehicles,” said º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøpolice spokesperson Nadine Ramadan.

What about your personal data?

Since this data is being used to actively train Magna’s artificial intelligence, that means the technology will capture people’s faces, while licence plates will be obscured.

The data, including personal information, is stored on a Magna server in º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøand certain Magna engineers — in Ontario and in Michigan — may access this data “for analysis and AI training, from time to time and for a short period of time,” the company said.

While the vehicles don’t use facial recognition technology, capturing faces on video “enables the better prediction of where pedestrians are going to move,” Magna said.

Coun. Gord Perks (Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park) said he has asked Magna if its AI was ever tested in the sort of complicated transportation environment like downtown Toronto, including any experience interacting with transit vehicles, bike lanes and construction zones or people wearing workers’ vests.

“They said ‘no,’” Perks said. “Experience operating where there might be potholes or other interruptions on the road? They were unsure.”

Perks also said he was told by Magna they were unsure if law enforcement agencies could get access to their video footage.

What’s next?

At council’s infrastructure and environment committee this month, councillors asked the city’s transportation staff to come back in September with answers to a Ìýabout privacy and consent, include getting advice from the provincial and federal privacy commissioners.

Also subject to council’s approval this week, city staff are to report back by the end of 2026 on the takeaways of the pilot project.