Kaitlin Keefer, Communications Manager, GM Canadian Technical Centre (CTC) tells us Engineers at the CTC can officially begin putting their “code-to-the-road”—right here in Canada—on the newly completed CTC McLaughlin Advanced Technology Track (CTC MATT).

Featuring an oval-shaped design for continuous driving and four lanes with speeds ranging from 60-100 km/hour, the CTC MATT will support the testing of advanced General Motors vehicle software and technologies that will enable a future vision that is self-driven, all-electric, and highly connected.

“Canada has become the ideal place for GM to expand its engineering work for the future – and the opening of the CTC McLaughlin Advanced Technology Track will take that work even further,” said Scott Bell, GM Canada President and Managing Director. “We’re excited for the next big step forward in advanced technology development and testing – right here in Oshawa.”

While the track is now operational internally, an official grand opening event with external audiences is being planned for early spring, pending COVID-19 restrictions.

In the meantime, the track will assist with the development and integration of software and hardware for advanced vehicle systems, including vehicle motion embedded controls, advanced driver assistance systems, autonomous vehicle systems, infotainment and advanced technology work.

GM technology sites

The 55-acre operation on the southern-end of the Oshawa Operations expands GM’s Canadian technology footprint to four sites. With campuses in Markham and Oshawa and the Kapuskasing Proving Grounds in northern Ontario, the CTC has grown to become the largest software engineering and development centre for GM outside the U.S.

The CTC MATT also builds on GM’s existing vehicle testing presence in Canada, which is already taking place at the Kapuskasing Proving Grounds. Featuring a 3.6km advanced test track and 30 cold cells capable of recreating weather conditions of -45C, Kapuskasing is a full-scale permanent cold weather test facility. All GM North American vehicle programs must complete cold weather exposure testing as part of their overall durability requirement, which is always managed by the Kapuskasing Proving Grounds team.

The CTC MATT’s multi-million-dollar investment was announced in May 2019, when GM invested C$170M in its Canadian operations.