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Three companies recently received approval from the government of Ontario to begin trialing self-driving vehicles on public roads in the Canadian province, Reuters reports.

These tests, which could begin in early 2017, will mark the opening of a new market for autonomous vehicle testing, and could signal that the regulatory framework in markets outside the US is more suitable to encourage the testing of self-driving vehicles.

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation granted permission to three companies:

BlackBerry’s QNX software unit. The group already has a strong presence in the vehicle connectivity market, recently agreeing with Ford to place software into some connected Ford vehicles. Further, the company began selling a device earlier this year for commercial fleet management. With this background, the software group should have a relatively smooth transition to testing self-driving vehicles.

University of Waterloo’s Center for Automotive Research. The center concentrates on testing new vehicle technologies and provides their research to partners, typically automakers. This means the center will likely provide the results of their autonomous driving tests to its partners, which could then leverage the findings to perfect their own self-driving vehicles.

Erwin Hymer Group, a German-based manufacturer of motorhomes, trailers, and vans. While they haven't released a specific strategy for self-driving vehicles, the company may look to test self-driving motorhomes.

Ontario is the geographic center of the Canadian auto industry, which helps make it ideal for testing autonomous vehicles. Further, according to TechCrunch, the province’s weather could be beneficial to autonomous vehicles that need to be exposed to as many conditions as possible, as it's one of the only areas in Canada with four markedly different seasons.

While Canada is relatively new to the self-driving car market, it's quickly becoming an ideal testing ground. Ontario early last year created the framework for applying to test self-driving vehicles in the province, allowing these sorts of tests to be conducted. Additionally, earlier this year, Apple was said to be hiring automotive software engineers in the region, suggesting that the tech giant could also develop and test the self-driving system it's reportedly developing in Ontario.

With the continued development of self-driving cars, new sites are needed for testing, and places like Canada and Singapore may prove more appealing than the US. The US government only outlined rough guidelines for self-driving vehicles earlier this year.

Additionally, states are able to craft their own regulations on self-driving vehicles, which is problematic for automakers as they could face pushback from states wishing to adopt stricter vehicle standards. For example, New Jersey wants to require a special driver’s license for operating autonomous vehicles. Given these trends, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the development of self-driving cars will be transnational, and vehicles tested around the world will contribute data to this venture.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on self-driving cars that examines the major strides automakers and tech companies have made to overcome the barriers currently preventing fully autonomous cars from hitting the market. Further, the report examines global survey results showing where fully autonomous cars are highly desired.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

Three barriers have been preventing fully autonomous cars from hitting the road: 1) high technological component prices; 2) varying degrees of consumer trust in the technology; and 3) relatively nonexistent regulations. Howev er, in the past six months, there have been many advances in overcoming these barriers.

Technology has been improving as new market entrants find innovative ways to expand on existing fully autonomous car technology. As a result, the price of the components required for fully autonomous cars has been dropping.

Consumer trust in fully autonomous vehicle technology has increased in the past two years.

California became the first US state to propose regulations. California's regulations stipulate that a fully autonomous car must have a driver behind the wheel at all times, discouraging Google's and Uber's idea of a driverless taxi system.

In full, the report:

Examines consumer trust in fully autonomous vehicles

Identifies technological advancements that have been made in the industry

Analyzes the cost of fully autonomous technology and identifies how cost is being reduced

Explains the current regulations surrounding fully autonomous cars

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The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the emerging world of self-driving cars.