Volume 31, Number 3 (full text follows)
Self-driving delivery vehicles spark privacy concerns
Province approves Magna pilot for several wards including University-Rosedale
By Abigail Harris
Magna International, a global automotive supplier and mobility tech company, launched their Automated Vehicle Pilot Program in May 2025.
The program is testing electric, self-driving delivery vehicles (SDVs) as part of a food delivery service, and the pilot area includes the Annex.
The Ministry of Transportation Ontario (MTO) approved the pilot in April, allowing the vehicles to operate in Ward 9 and in portions of Wards 4, 5, 11, and 12.
All vehicles will receive their own Ontario licence plates and will be subject to the same road rules as conventionally operated vehicles.
According to Magna’s website, sensors on the vehicle will collect data from the surrounding area which will “incidentally include personal information such as images of people and vehicle license plates.”
In June, Khasir Hean and Ilya Kreynin, members of the group Technologists for Democracy, wrote a letter to Magna along with four other members detailing their privacy concerns with the pilot.
Kreynin and Hean joined other Technologists for Democracy members at city hall in June to discuss their concerns with the city’s infrastructure and environment committee, and city councillors passed a motion on June 26 to investigate data privacy issues surrounding Magna.
Kreynin said that they became aware of the issue when fellow member JJ Fueser told them about the new self-driving vehicle pilot.
“When JJ (Fueser) first brought this to our attention, and we gave a brief read of the open privacy policy that Magna has, it was egregiously overstepping,” Kreynin said. “We realized that there was really low awareness of this and that there wasn’t anybody else who was speaking out about this directly.”
Hean said Magna is recording faces because they believe them to be useful in determining the gait of passersby in relation to their vehicles.
“Magna fully intends to record the faces of individuals that it passes by on the streets because it believes that faces are useful to help predict where people are walking,” Hean said. “Other self-driving vehicle companies don’t record people’s faces. They blur them.”
Magna states that they will retain this data for “as long as nec-essary,” which Kreynin says sets a dangerous precedent.
“That’s entirely vague. They can keep it however long they want,” Kreynin said. “This is a new level of privacy breach in terms of this type of storing and anonymization. This company is running their cameras and robots into our neighborhood where people did not choose and consent to this happening.”
The privacy policy also asserts that data will be shared with third parties such as insurance providers, law enforcement, and other officials when required by law.
Hean says this raises many questions about Magna’s process of sharing this information and its ethicality.
“Where’s the accountability in that?” Hean said. “How will we be informed if the police decide to use Magna as a live tracking device as well as a food delivery service? How do we and the public know this? There’s no mechanism to inform the public.”
Kreynin says Magna responded to their letter in July, not by addressing their concerns, but by inviting them to tour their facility.
[Image of a man picking up food from the Magna self-driving vehicle, with caption: Magna’s pilot program supports small-package deliveries like food, groceries, and retail items.]
“While they invited us to the facility, they have not responded to any of the clear and direct concerns laid out in the letter in writing,” Kreynin said. “We have not received any kind of satisfactory or clear response from Magna at this time.”
According to Kreynin, an important consideration in this emerging new technology is whether it is helping or hurting communities.
“The point of the vehicles is to replace workers,” Kreynin said. “This industry is only set to expand in a way that is likely to hurt local businesses and communities. The question is, what is the effect that this has on our society? This pilot is not just a pilot [of] technology; it’s a pilot of integration into our society.”
Magna International did not respond to the Gleaner’s request for an interview.
