Waterloo is home to a vibrant automotive technology cluster. Canada’s largest automotive manufacturer – Toyota – is located here, alongside world-class research centres for automotive and mobility innovation. Fueled by Canada’s most dynamic tech ecosystem, Waterloo is driving a smarter, safer and more connected automotive future.
Here is Waterloo’s autotech ecosystem in a nutshell:
What are our autotech ecosystem advantages?
More than 80 companies are working across the autotech spectrum in Waterloo. What makes Waterloo the ideal location to accelerate your autotech success?
- Waterloo is at the cutting edge of autotech. Our community is home to one of the world’s highest-quality automotive assembly facilities (Toyota) and Canada’s largest university-based automotive research centre (WatCAR).
- Autotech companies can fuel their talent pipeline with Waterloo’s world-class academic institutions. The University of Waterloo is the #1 Engineering school in Canada and ranked #23 in the world in Computer Science.
- Waterloo’s dynamic community is ideal for building partnerships. Our complete concept-to-commercialization autotech ecosystem promotes collaboration between autotech companies, university researchers, manufacturers/suppliers and additional local stakeholders.
What major autotech players are located here?
Waterloo is home to numerous global autotech leaders, such as:
- ATS Automation
- Ford
- ESCRYPT
- Eclipse Automation
- Miovision
- Toyota
- Turntide Technologies
- IBM
What organizations support the autotech industry?
Waterloo’s industry support organizations and research hubs accelerate autotech success, and include:
- Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research – WatCAR is the largest university-based research centre in Canada. The centre focuses on collaborative research in automotive and transportation systems while facilitating relations with those in the automotive industry and 125+ UWaterloo faculty researchers.
- Autonomous Vehicle and Intelligence Lab – AVRIL is a 10-bay R&D workspace involved in creating mobility solutions in automated driving, vehicle connectivity and advanced driver assistance systems.
- Centre for Intelligent Antenna and Radio Systems – CIARS provides researchers with exploration and development opportunities in the field of electromagnetic communication and sensing science and engineering.
- Waterloo Intelligent Systems Engineering Lab – WISE Lab develops industrial research in safety and quality requirements, simulation and machine learning, with a focus on autonomous cars.
Learn more about Waterloo’s exceptional autotech ecosystem by downloading our Autotech Feature Sheet.