The TTC is contemplating a future when autonomous vehicles could replace its existing bus fleet.

A report that agency staff prepared for the TTC board meeting on Wednesday noted that the development of driverless vehicles capable of being used in public transit is still years away, and there’s too little information for the agency to take steps to adopt the technology.

But the report states that should the autonomous transit buses become available “the TTC would be happy to become a leader” in their use.

TTC CEO Andy Byford said that it’s smart for the transit commission to take a “wait and see approach.”

“The TTC has in the past had its fingers burnt by getting in at the early edge of technology,” he said, citing the fleet of hybrid buses that the agency rolled out in 2008. The vehicles have turned out to be much less reliable than regular buses.

“I don’t think Torontonians will thank us if we race into embracing new technology before it’s been proven,” Byford said.

Ross McKenzie, managing director for the Waterloo Centre of Automotive Research at the University of Waterloo, said the transit agency is right to start preparing for autonomous vehicles.

He said that for more than a decade, companies have been able to build autonomous shuttles that operate on closed courses, such as business parks or university campuses. The next step is transferring that technology to the more complex environment of a city street.

According to McKenzie, that will happen sooner than many people think.

“It’s certainly on the horizon. Is it going to happen tomorrow? Is it going to happen 20 years from now? No, it won’t take that long,” he said.

The report weighed the pros and cons of two types of automated technology: a highly automated bus that would still have an operator on board to intervene in when required, and a fully automated vehicle without an operator behind the wheel.

In the latter case, a “remote fleet manager” would monitor several vehicles at once and would be able to take control of them in case of an emergency.

The report determined that automated vehicles have the potential to save money, increase schedule reliability, reduce stress for operators, and cut down on collisions. But potential drawbacks include the difficulty of determining whether a TTC employee or the vehicle itself is responsible in the event of a crash, expensive upfront costs, customer service challenges, and the possibility of cyber-attacks against the transit system.

The report also raised concerns about how to conduct fare collection and address passenger incidents on board vehicles.

It also said that to date, autonomous vehicles have had difficultly performing in inclement weather, particularly snow, which could “significantly limit the viability of AVs in Canadian climates.”

While to date major car manufacturers like Ford, Tesla, and BMW, as well as technology companies like Google and Uber, have focused investment in private autonomous vehicles, some advancements have been made in automated public transit vehicles.

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Mercedes-Benz is developing a “Future Bus” that it claims will be able to operate “more safely, efficiently, comfortably than conventional buses,” but the TTC report said that test data from the vehicle has not yet been made public. The vehicle can drive itself but operates with a human driver on board in case intervention is needed.

In addition to the possibility of adopting driverless vehicles as part of the TTC fleet, the report also noted that the technology could “bring massive implications for transportation planning” in the form of increased private car trips in autonomous vehicles, and privately-owned fleets of driverless cars that could compete with public transit.