Waymo has won approval to join Ontario's automated vehicle pilot and will start manually driven mapping in Toronto, its first move into Canada.
Why it matters: Toronto extends Waymo's expansion beyond its 15 US cities and gives it its northernmost, most wintry test market, a harder operating case than its existing services.
Data as of Friday, October 16, 2026, 13:40 ET. Single sourced to TechCrunch reporting of Waymo's announcement, opened and read in full, hence grade C for a developing item.
Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving unit, said on Friday it will begin manually driven mapping in Toronto after receiving approval to take part in Ontario’s automated vehicle pilot program. Testing with a human safety operator will follow, before any public robotaxi service.
Toronto-based Element Fleet Management will manage the local fleet, in line with Waymo’s recent pattern of using third-party operators in new cities. No launch date for paid rides was given.