Automated driving, vehicle cybersecurity and anti-impaired driving technology were among the major topics at an international vehicle safety conference held in Toronto this month.
The 28th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles, known as ESV 2026, ran May 12 to 15 at Exhibition Place.
Transport Canada and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration co-hosted the event, held under the theme Advancing Innovation: Technologies for Safer Vehicles.
The conference program included a plenary on automated driving systems, with discussion of current applications, safety performance validation, regulatory issues, public trust, deployment challenges, fleet monitoring and incident management.
The government panel included Jonathan Morrison, administrator of NHTSA, and Melanie Vanstone, director general of motor vehicle and road safety at Transport Canada. The industry panel included representatives from Zoox, Tesla, Waabi and NVIDIA.
“NHTSA is committed to enhancing public safety on our roads and ESV continues to be at the forefront of technological innovation, bringing together regulators, industry, and safety experts to discuss cutting-edge advancements in vehicle safety,” Morrison said in an April release.
Technical sessions covered ADAS crash avoidance and mitigation, driver monitoring systems, AI and machine learning, virtual testing, alternative-fuel vehicle safety, human factors in driving automation and safety assessments for vehicles using automated driving systems at SAE Levels 3, 4 and 5.
A special session on cybersecurity examined connected, software-defined and AI-enabled vehicles. According to the conference program, the discussion covered security threats, vulnerabilities, information sharing, security practices and supply-chain security.
Another special session focused on vehicle safety and affordability, including crash avoidance, crashworthiness, occupant protection and post-crash response.
According to Transport Canada program material, Tesla offered delegates a demonstration of Full Self-Driving (Supervised) on city streets around Exhibition Place.
The same material stated that FSD (Supervised) can make lane changes, follow a navigation route, navigate around vehicles and some objects and make turns under driver supervision. It also stated the features do not make the vehicle fully autonomous or replace the need for a licensed driver.
Representatives of MADD Canada called for federal support for anti-impaired driving technology in new vehicles once the technology is ready.
“Families impacted by impaired driving carry lifelong pain that no one should have to experience,” MADD Canada National President Tanya Hansen Pratt said in a May 12 release. “Anti-impaired driving technology will prevent these tragedies before they happen.”
According to MADD Canada representatives, victims and survivors met with federal officials on Parliament Hill May 5 to call for anti-impaired technology to be made mandatory in new vehicles once ready and for Transport Canada to be funded to review systems under development.
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said Canada was “proud to welcome the global road safety community to Toronto” for the conference.
“By bringing together researchers, regulators, and industry leaders, we are fostering innovation and cooperation that will shape the next generation of vehicle safety and strengthen our collective efforts to make roads safer around the world,” MacKinnon said in the April release.
For collision repair businesses, ESV 2026 was not a repair conference. But agenda topics overlapped with issues already shaping modern repairs, including ADAS, automated driving, alternative-fuel vehicles, cybersecurity, driver monitoring, crash testing, sensor data and safety-system validation.
