Fleet PAVE Canada to Run Public Education Campaign on Automated Vehicles

Leading Canadian AV stakeholders join together to promote understanding of today’s tech and tomorrow’s possibilities.

Partners for Automated Vehicle Education today launched PAVE Canada, a nonprofit coalition of organizations joining together to help inform the Canadian public and policymakers about the potential and the reality of automated vehicle technologies and self-driving vehicles. The coalition is supported by a road safety grant from Transport Canada.

PAVE Canada is a new arm of PAVE, which launched in the United States in 2019. PAVE Canada members include Algolux, Audi Canada, Blackberry, CAVCOE, Flir, Gatik, !important, Insurance Office of America (IOA), Liberty Mutual, Quantiv Risk, Stantec Generation AV, Travelers, and Toyota Canada. Organizations interested in joining the new coalition may contact [email protected].

“PAVE Canada’s members come from a wide variety of interests, but our diverse group shares two key beliefs: that automated vehicles offer great potential to society, and that we won’t achieve that potential without a well-informed public that understands the technology,” said PAVE Executive Director Tara Andringa. “We work to provide hype-free facts to the public so that everyone can participate in the conversation about the future of transportation.”

PAVE Canada will engage in broad activities to help raise the level of public understanding of AV technology. During its first year, PAVE Canada will:

• Commission a public opinion survey to establish baselines of public knowledge of automated vehicle technology
• Develop a social media campaign, based on the results of the survey, that addresses the gaps in knowledge and conveys facts about AV technology; and
• Produce hype-free educational materials to help raise the level of knowledge about AV technology and its potential.

PAVE Canada seeks to bring realistic, factual information to policymakers and the public so consumers and decision-makers understand the technology, its current state and its future potential — including the benefits in safety, mobility and sustainability.