Self-driving cars are taking over Toronto’s streets. Are you ready?

A new breed of robots is coming to town. Last Thursday, the province cordially informed Toronto city council that two wee delivery bots developed by Magna International—the global auto parts firm founded by legally beleaguered tycoon Frank Stronach—would be trawling the streets of the west end this spring, carrying packages to and fro without a human at the wheel.

The notice was merely a courtesy: it would be happening whether Toronto liked it or not. In its law allowing self-driving cars to be tested on Ontario streets, Doug Ford’s government explicitly forbade cities from turning away their new automated neighbours.

Related: Inside Uber’s self-driving car lab

And so we’ll get to know the Last Mile Delivery Device (LMDD), which stands just over four feet tall on three wheels—two in front, one at the back—and otherwise has the dimensions of a toppled fridge. The vehicles are designed to pull up to customers’ doors, at which point regular old humans have to come down and grab their stuff themselves—the bright minds at Magna haven’t yet automated the art of walking up a stoop and ringing a doorbell.

The first two LMDDs will be tailed by chaperones, Magna staff who will drive just behind them, armed with a shut-down button should their charges misbehave. From the company’s offices, another employee will monitor the bot’s radar, LIDAR (fancy laser radar) and camera feeds. They’ll be able to take full control should things go south.

And other safeguards apply: the robocars will be limited to a top speed of 32 kilometres per hour, can’t drive on streets with speed limits over 40 kilometres per hour, and can take only right turns. When it comes to parking, the human controller will take over—deciphering Toronto’s signage is beyond even the most advanced AI. Related: How chemist and computer scientist Alán Aspuru-Guzik brought self-driving laboratories from Harvard to Toronto

The two new bots will ply the roads of Davenport and parts of Parkdale–High Park, York South–Weston, University-Rosedale and Toronto–St. Paul’s. Some of those areas’ councillors are already fearing the worst. Davenport councillor Alejandra Bravo fretted about the things being untested. Parkdale–High Park rep Gord Perks feared traffic accidents. University-Rosedale’s Dianne Saxe bemoaned the province’s typical lack of transparency. All of which seems to have been moot: self-driving cars are coming, one way or another.

While Magna’s current permit allows it to deploy two vehicles, it could increase that to as many as 20. But robot drivers aren’t the only ones to be feared. Ontario’s last experiment with self-driving vehicles, an autonomous shuttle operating out of Whitby’s GO station, was cancelled after it got into a collision—while a human had it in manual mode. For anyone familiar with GTA traffic, it often seems like the bots couldn’t do much worse.