GM sets sights on AV track for fall

General Motors is racing to start building a test track for autonomous- and advanced-vehicle technology on the site of its Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant. The automaker's Canada unit is "optimistic" that work can begin this fall.

GM Canada spokeswoman Jacqueline Thomson said there is no firm timetable, but the company believes it will receive necessary local approvals in time to start construction then.

News of GM Canada's potential start of construction comes after the automaker secured the necessary zoning changes. The Oshawa Express newspaper last week reported that the city government approved a zoning variance that would allow construction to start, but GM needs permits before moving forward.

GM this year said it would convert 55 acres on the south end of its Oshawa plant site into the test track. It's part of a larger plan for the factory, where vehicle assembly will end this year and a smaller stamping and parts production operation will begin.

The fall start of construction is in line with what GM Canada President Travis Hester said in July.

"Because autonomous vehicles are moving fast in the industry, we would really like that track built within six months," Hester told Automotive News Canada. "But we'll see how the permits go, and if it takes us 12, it takes us 12. But we're pulling to go very fast on that site."

GM has said the test track would benefit its technical center in Oshawa, as well as its technical center in Markham, Ontario, that opened in 2018. Much of the testing on software developed in Canada now occurs in the U.S.