Ottawa L5 is North America’s very first connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) testing environment. With CAVs being the future of transportation, and capable of completely transforming the way that people travel, work, and live throughout the world, providing adequate testing grounds is vital to ensuring their success and more importantly, their safety.
Ottawa L5 houses two testing tracks, one that’s public, and another that’s private. The public track is located in Kanata North and offers a 9km testing environment that takes CAVs through public roads so that researchers can see how they react in a live city infrastructure. The private track is located in the Bayview Yards and is 16km long. As the track is within a fenced and gated facility, it’s ideal for pre-commercial development, testing, demonstrations, and validation purposes.
One factor that makes the Ottawa tracks stand out from others are the extreme temperatures that come through, which allows researchers to get a better understanding of how the technology reacts in environments where it can drop below -40 degrees Celsius.
Although CAVs are not fully anonymous yet, with automation levels defined on a scale of one to five, Ottawa L5 is dedicated to a futuristic vision in which they are, with its very name reflecting this.
Integrated CAV Testing Environments
Ottawa L5 Allows Researchers to Safely Assess Smart Vehicles
Trend Themes
1. Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) Testing Environments - Creating testing environment for CAVs to ensure their success and safety, allowing researchers to see how they react in a live city infrastructure and pre-commercial development, testing, demonstrations, and validation purposes.
2. Extreme Temperature Testing and Cavs - Extreme temperature testing tracks can help researchers understand how CAVs react in environments where it can drop below -40 degrees Celsius.
3. Futuristic Vision of Anonymous Cavs - Ottawa L5 is dedicated to a futuristic vision in which CAVs are fully autonomous, giving researchers an opportunity to develop and test the technology to eventually make it happen.
Industry Implications
1. Automotive Industry - The automotive industry can utilize CAV testing environments to test new technologies and improve safety features, leading to a significant competitive edge in the market.
2. Transportation and Logistics Industry - The transportation and logistics industry can leverage CAV technology to automate and optimize their current operations, reducing costs and enhancing efficiency as well as safety.
3. Technology Industry - Technology companies can use CAV testing environments to develop and test new software, sensors, and communication systems that are required for fully autonomous vehicles, leading to potential partnerships with automotive and logistics companies.