Ontario’s driverless pilot rules expire in October 2027, before Waymo plans Toronto rides

Ontario’s rulebook for testing driverless vehicles, Ontario Regulation 306/15, is set to be revoked on Oct. 13, 2027, months before Waymo’s planned 2028 start of rider service in Toronto. No replacement has been announced, and the province does not yet have rules for a commercial driverless service. The gap leaves the company’s first Canadian robotaxi plan resting on a testing framework with a fixed end date.

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What Regulation 306/15 permits

The regulation is the Highway Traffic Act pilot project for automated vehicles. Ontario launched it as a ten-year pilot on Jan. 1, 2016, and enhanced it on Jan. 1, 2019 to allow driverless vehicle testing, consumer use of Level 3 conditionally automated vehicles and a framework for cooperative truck platooning. Electrek reports that the regulation is revoked on Oct. 13, 2027, and the province’s own pilot page describes the program as currently extended to that date.

Ontario’s pilot program page lays out the conditions. Level 4 and Level 5 driverless testing requires the participant to declare the technology safe and effective and accept full liability, provide a work-zone and first-responder interaction plan, notify affected municipalities, obtain advance ministry approval for provincial highways and display a driverless testing sign. Participants must carry at least $5 million in liability insurance, or $8 million for vehicles seating eight or more, and report collisions within 10 days. Applicants must own the vehicle, submit a cybersecurity plan and an annual testing report, and meet the ministry twice a year. The text of the rule itself sits on e-Laws.

A testing framework is not a ride-hailing licence

Electrek, in its report on the Toronto plan, describes the regulation as a testing framework rather than a ride-hailing licence, and notes that Waymo’s own post mentions no permits or approvals. Waymo’s announcement lays out mapping with manual driving first, then testing with trained specialists behind the wheel, and a goal of welcoming first riders in 2028. Transport Canada told Canadian Affairs that self-driving vehicles on public roads are limited to “temporary pilot projects” run by provinces. Vehicles that do not meet federal Motor Vehicle Safety Act requirements also need a Transport Canada exemption under the Ontario pilot.

The pilot’s design explains the mismatch. Applicants must be a manufacturer, converter, technology company, research institution or parts manufacturer, and they must notify the ministry before starting, stopping or restarting testing. Vehicles must carry a copy of the signed approval form, and automated motorcycles and motor-assisted bicycles are not permitted. Nothing in those conditions describes fares, dispatch or a public passenger service. A technology company such as Waymo fits the participant categories for testing, which is the stage its Toronto cars are entering now, but the conditions say nothing about what happens when a company wants to sell rides.

Electrek puts the gap in one sentence: “Ontario doesn’t have rules for a commercial driverless service yet.”

Amendments the ministry shelved

Ontario once proposed to widen the pilot. The Ministry of Transportation posted the proposal on Sept. 29, 2021 on the Environmental Registry, with a 45-day comment period that ran to Nov. 13, 2021. It covered expanding the automated vehicle pilot project, broadening the manufacturer plate program and allowing micro-utility devices. The ministry received seven comments through the registry and one by email, and supportive comments focused on the expansion while concerns focused on insurance requirements and vehicle liability.

The notice was updated on July 17, 2023 to say the file was still under review. On Aug. 8, 2025 the ministry decided not to proceed with the proposed amendments to Regulation 306/15 and the related changes to Regulation 628 on vehicle permits. The registry page describes a ten-year program starting in 2016, a term that would have run to about the start of 2026, while the ministry’s current page gives Oct. 13, 2027, so the end date has moved once already.

The calendar facing Waymo’s Toronto launch

Waymo’s cars begin driving Toronto streets in the coming days, and the company is targeting first public riders in 2028. Between Oct. 13, 2027 and a 2028 launch lies a stretch of months in which the testing rules end and no commercial rules have been announced. Something would have to extend or replace Regulation 306/15, or a new framework would have to be written, before paid driverless rides could begin under provincial law.

The open question is which route Ontario takes. Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana called Canada “an important milestone in Waymo’s global journey,” and partners including Element Fleet Management, Magna International and CPP Investments are already named. The province has announced nothing yet about what follows October 2027. For riders and for city officials, including a mayor’s office that has said it will not back Waymo if jobs are lost, the sequence matters: provincial rules would need to exist before the city’s conditions on jobs can be tested against a real service. Until the ministry says whether it will extend the pilot, replace it or write commercial rules, the 2028 date rests on a legal framework that has not been drafted in public.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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