Item - 2021.IE23.19

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:  

1. City Council authorize the General Manager, Transportation Services to establish a Video Recording Policy for the Automated Shuttle Trial that is satisfactory to the City Clerk, reflecting the requirements of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and the general principles of the City of Toronto Security Video Surveillance Policy and the Toronto Transit Commission's Video Recording Policy, as applicable to the use of video surveillance (exterior and interior cameras) as is required for the Automated Shuttle Trial, and to conduct the Automated Shuttle Trial including the collection of information through video surveillance in accordance with the Video Recording Policy for Automated Shuttle Trial for the period of no earlier than July 1, 2021 to no later than February 28, 2022.

The City of Toronto, in partnership with the Toronto Transit Commission and Metrolinx, and with funding support from Transport Canada, is launching an Automated Shuttle Trial in Scarborough. The Trial service will use new automated vehicle technology to provide a connecting transit service between the West Rouge community and Rouge Park to the nearby Rouge Hill GO Station. The Trial will begin testing this summer, with service to passengers from September 2021 to as late as February 2022.

Local Motors was the successful vendor from a request for proposals conducted in 2020 to find a vehicle vendor and operator for the Trial. The Local Motors shuttle is a 3D-printed electric vehicle called Olli 2.0 that carries up to eight passengers. Olli 2.0 is equipped with seven exterior cameras and three interior cameras that record all activity using an intentionally out-of-focus lens while the vehicle is in operation. The cameras provide a video-only record of the environment surrounding the vehicle in all directions, as well as the interior cabin, in order to review vehicle performance, operational issues encountered, and in-cabin security without capturing personal information.

A privacy impact assessment for the Automated Shuttle Trial was conducted in March 2021 by staff of the Chief Information Security Officer in collaboration with Transportation Services. The cameras included on the Olli 2.0 shuttle will be optically blurred at the point of manufacture, thus preventing the collection of data with personally identifiable information. While there is no intention to collect personal information through the use of Olli 2.0 cameras, staff are putting a policy in place to ensure there are protections in the event that this type of information is collected.

In addition, the use of interior and exterior cameras on a public vehicle operated by the City of Toronto falls outside of the City's existing policy guidance on video surveillance, but aligns with the Toronto Transit Commission's policy, leading staff to request explicit authority to implement the Automated Shuttle Trial with its own Video Recording Policy that follows the principles of both existing City and Toronto Transit Commission policies as applicable.