Waymo is coming to Toronto. Will its self-driving cars be winter-ready?

[u/DogeDoRight]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/waymo-toronto-winter-self-driving-9.7384550

[u/GreatGreenGobbo]

I'd like to see how they would handle the 427 Southbound between 401 and QEW.

[u/skiier97 → u/GreatGreenGobbo]

Highway driving is farrrrr away. Even in SF it’s not even rolled out after all these years.

[u/wheeman → u/skiier97]

They had highway driving available for public usage for a few months but not at the moment. Not sure why they stopped.

[u/arter1al → u/skiier97]

Anecdotal, but I’ve used self driving in my Y for about 6000km. Almost zero issues, it actually performs the best on the highway, less variables. Only thing I’ve had it goof on was a speed bump outside of the GTA at night, in the cars defence it wasn’t painted and poorly marked . It’s handled emergency vehicles by pulling aside and let them pass even a cop directing traffic once, it’s pretty impressive. Different tech, but Tesla’s is pretty solid.

[u/Portdal12 → u/GreatGreenGobbo]

Curious why the southbound specifically? I find the 427 southbound to be super easy. The 427 North to the 401 (especially the eastbound 401) is way more stressful for the average person. What would waymo struggle with? 

[u/deepdishpizzastate → u/Portdal12]

Is it somehow able to flip the bird?

[u/Upper_Canada_Pango]

Remember the axiom that if a headline is in the form of a question that the answer to that question is "no".

[u/whiskey06 → u/Upper_Canada_Pango]

-Betteridge's Law of Headlines

[u/breadtangle]

This is good news for motorists in Toronto.  You can cut off waymos and they always stop and let you in. 

[u/randobis]

Surprised they didn’t choose Vancouver first. 

[u/Maleficent_Flow_8355]

They need to push Waymo to open up an R&D branch at least. Canada is great for winter driving development.

[u/wolverinex2 → u/Maleficent_Flow_8355]

There’s definitely some. Magna, a major Canadian automotive parts manufacturer is the one that “builds” the Waymos, in that they purchase Jaguar/Chinese EVs and modify them with the sensors and navigation equipment.

[u/DiscoStu691969]

Waymo accidents coming to Toronto

[u/Defiant_Yoghurt8198 → u/DiscoStu691969]

Because humans never, ever get into accidents right?

ttps://www.iihs.org/news/detail/waymos-driverless-cars-crash-less-often-than-people

Why do you hate road safety?

Edit for more stats :)

1. Waymo Safety Impact Report (September 2026)

271.3 million fully autonomous miles

• 93% fewer injury-causing crashes involving pedestrians.

• 86% fewer injury-causing crashes involving cyclists.

• 95% fewer serious or fatal injury crashes.

• 82% fewer injury-causing crashes overall.

2. Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) (July 2026)

Independent research — approximately 50 million Waymo miles

• 81% fewer injury crashes.

• 68% fewer police-reportable crashes overall.

• 85% fewer single-vehicle crashes.

3. Swiss Re Insurance Study (December 2024)

25.3 million Waymo miles

• 92% fewer bodily-injury liability claims.

• 88% fewer property-damage claims.

• 90% fewer bodily-injury claims compared with newer human-driven cars equipped with modern safety features.

4. Peer-Reviewed Safety Study (2025)

56.7 million Waymo miles

• 92% fewer injury crashes involving pedestrians.

• 82% fewer injury crashes involving cyclists.

• 85% fewer serious or worse injury crashes.

• 96% fewer injury-causing vehicle-to-vehicle intersection crashes.

[u/omnicorp_intl → u/Defiant_Yoghurt8198]

"I like pancakes"

"SO YOU HATE WAFFLES???"

[u/chandler55 → u/omnicorp_intl]

in this case it’d be waffles replacing pancakes 1:1 tho

[u/sarge21 → u/omnicorp_intl]

Bad analogy. In this case it's more like "I can't eat a pancake because I'm on a diet" while you shove 1000 waffles down your throat

[u/InfluenceSad5221 → u/Defiant_Yoghurt8198]

When licking the boots of a car company, are you actually licking the trunk?

[u/Defiant_Yoghurt8198 → u/InfluenceSad5221]

Do you have any response to the fact that Waymos get into 68% less crashes than human drivers, or are you just here to be ignorant and throw around disparaging comments?

[u/greasygreenbastard → u/Defiant_Yoghurt8198]

is this autism? 

[u/Defiant_Yoghurt8198 → u/greasygreenbastard]

is this autism? 

Yes. Extremely.

Now, do you have any response to the fact that Waymos get into 68% less crashes than human drivers, or are you just here to be ignorant and throw around disparaging comments?

[u/TheCanadianShield99]

So, what was the approval process for this? How does the city and citizens benefit from allowing this American firm experiment on the streets of Toronto, possibly compromising the safety of the public?

[u/ElectronicFerret → u/TheCanadianShield99]

Well, you see, whoever signs the NDA can’t tell you if they profited from Waymo or got paid to do this. Just assume it’s definitely for the best.  Really. This benefits everyone. Especially the folks who sign those NDAs. 

It’s like all the data center shit; there’s profit but the regular folks are never going to see it. 

[u/TheCanadianShield99 → u/ElectronicFerret]

Only slightly sketchy. 🤨

[u/Somecommentator8008]

Don't they stop when they see a large puddle or pool of water on the street?

[u/goldbeater]

I’m seeing people having to get together and push them out of the snow just to get them out of the way. Hopefully they just send one to see if it works.

[u/kamomil]

Will they be ready for streetcars, buses, bicycles, e-bikes, motorized scooters, etc? 

[u/Jusfiq]

I hope that the Government of Ontario is stricter than the Government of California in terms of letting self-driving cars operate independently on public roads. There are plenty of articles and videos of Waymo cars driving erratically in the streets of San Francisco and there is nothing the SFPD can do to stop the cars or to ticket the infractions.

[u/YoungEccentricMan]

This might be the dissenting opinion but I feel way safer in a waymo than in most Lyft/uber

[u/ProofCup1797]

I'm sick of these Uber drivers that smell like they haven't showered in days. Looking forward to the future!

[u/DownWithTheSyndrme]

Fuck. As a mechanic in Toronto's west end, I can confidently tell you that a shitload of cars already are not winter ready...lol

[u/Major_Lawfulness6122]

lol no they won’t

[u/aktionreplay]

Can’t wait for these things to cause unnecessary road issues while contributing to escalating wealth disparity 

[u/Ambitious-Durian-758]

Maybe, but I am expecting Waymo accidents

[u/lylesback2]

That means Tesla will now be jumping at the bit to get cybercabs in Toronto

[u/Maddifish]

Yet another horrible idea

[u/Flecca]

Nobody wants this fucking SHIT

[u/-iSpy-]

I'm sorry but why are we allowing a big giant US tech company to essentially map out one of our largest cities when we're being threatened with annexation by the US?

It's not even going to bring jobs here, only increase the work load for mechanics, which, fine, it's whatever, but why is this happening exactly??

Ridiculous amount of replys focusing on the city being mapped part but nothing about doing business with an American tech company that's not gonna bring any jobs to the city. 👍 Nice

[u/redgrandam → u/-iSpy-]

Not only does it not bring jobs here, aside from maybe a handful of maintenance people, but it actually takes money that would have stayed in the local economy and sends it to a foreign country (USA and overseas). In about every metric I can think of it’s harmful to our economy.

[u/Gambit723 → u/redgrandam]

This is true it’s not like uber where it at least creates jobs.

[u/casualguitarist → u/Gambit723]

Not many want those jobs even though is a demand for the service, for a low price ofc. Guess who's mainly doing these jobs.. Autonomous vehicles are definitely needed especially in trucking/long distance since they're on the more unhealthy/stressful side.

[u/Far-Importance2106 → u/-iSpy-]

That ship has sailed a loooong time ago. Google Street View has been available for almost 20 years now.

[u/croissant_muncher → u/-iSpy-]

It has already been mapped a very large number of times.

[u/Portdal12 → u/-iSpy-]

Have you used google streetview? 

[u/Defiant_Yoghurt8198 → u/-iSpy-]

Lmao do you think Toronto's street layout is a national secret? Have you seen Google maps?

[u/sarge21 → u/-iSpy-]

Are you serious? Have you never used a mapping service?

[u/LabEfficient → u/-iSpy-]

Because they have already done so many times, and because the US is a vastly more successful and innovative country than those overtaxing bureaucratic regimes who think they are better.

[u/casualguitarist → u/-iSpy-]

- Posted on Reddit with a Google/Apple device.

[u/FullMango4041 → u/-iSpy-]

Let me introduce you to Google Maps

[u/lanAstbury]

i imagine they won't run in extreme winter weather.

what kind of bait headline is this

[u/AdditionalPizza → u/lanAstbury]

The headline didn't say "extreme winter weather" though?

[u/288bpsmodem → u/AdditionalPizza]

Extreme happens fast in Toronto in some ways it's a lot more dangerous than always snow covered. Melt and freeze multiple times a day. Always ice patches that are hard to see esp at dusk.

[u/AdditionalPizza → u/288bpsmodem]

I'm not arguing about the weather, I'm saying the headline isn't bait because it didn't mention "extreme" winter weather.

But we typically have the ability to predict weather accurate enough within the next hour or 2 to know if a sunny day is going to have a convective storm. If a front is coming through we can predict it days in advance. They could simply not run them when we know in advance that extreme weather is predicted, and call them off the streets if a pattern develops quickly.

Yes we can cue bad weather prediction jokes, but consumer algorithm based weather apps aren't what we use for this kind of thing. We have meteorologists interpreting HRDPS and HRRR constantly and updating TAF's and METAR's that are plenty accurate enough to avoid almost every case of sudden "extreme" weather these days.

[u/DarSide22]

Toronto is about to become more gridlocked

[u/JackleMonkey4653453]

The sooner humans don’t drive, the safer we will all be.

[u/V1cT]

That's the one that has their cars driven remotely from China, right?

[u/jx237cc → u/V1cT]

Philippines. https://www.techspot.com/news/111233-waymo-admits-autopilot-often-guys-philippines.html

[u/smittyleafs → u/jx237cc]

As evidenced by my Filipino coworkers. They are nice, hard working...and have zero experience driving in the snow.

[u/dumpcake999 → u/jx237cc]

😮 I didn't know

[u/cwolveswithitchynuts → u/V1cT]

No.

[u/InternationalMix1521]

As I driver, I usually don’t like to be driven. But I’d try it.

[u/NoAcadia3546]

With the current "Super El Nino", the coming winter of 2026-2027 will probably be wimpy, relatively warm and dry. 2027-2028 will probably be the real test.