The Commons of Autonomy
Building a Public, Open-Source Autonomous Vehicle Ecosystem for Canada
Presented by Jesse Hirsh
Strategic Moment
Canada's Autonomy Dilemma
Proprietary Systems
Tesla, Waymo, and DJI dominate with closed ecosystems that limit oversight and foster regulatory capture.
Sovereign Open Ecosystems
Community-driven, transparent alternatives that keep innovation and governance in Canadian hands.
We stand at a crossroads where climate action, infrastructure renewal, and rural mobility converge. The choices we make now will determine whether autonomy serves corporations or communities.
This session is fully interactive—questions are welcome at any time.
Agency and Inevitability
Our capacity to engage with emerging technologies, particularly autonomous transportation, fundamentally shapes the society that emerges from this transformation.
Empowering Agency
With technological literacy, individuals and institutions can actively guide autonomous systems, ensuring they serve public good, foster community, and align with Canadian values. This involves understanding, adapting, and influencing development to create desired social outcomes.
Facing Inevitability
Without this crucial literacy, we risk a future where technological change, driven by external corporate interests, dictates societal outcomes. This passive stance leads to unforeseen consequences, eroding control over our public spaces and infrastructure.
What About the Human?
The pervasive myth that automation inevitably leads to widespread job displacement and loss of human control is false. In reality, automation reshapes roles and creates new opportunities, demanding human expertise and oversight.
Automation = Displacement
- Job loss fears
- Human obsolescence
Automation = Empowerment
- Human–tech collaboration
- New skill development
Far from being sidelined, humans remain critical. Auto dealerships face technician shortages, logistics companies struggle to find drivers, and citizens continue to grapple with gridlock and a feeling of powerlessness. These challenges highlight that human insight, adaptability, and decision-making are not only relevant but essential for effective, human-centric autonomous systems.
Commons-Based Infrastructure
The case for building autonomy as a public good rather than a proprietary product.
Transparent
Open algorithms and decision-making processes that can be audited, understood, and improved by the public.
Modular
Interchangeable components that prevent vendor lock-in and encourage innovation across the ecosystem.
Adaptable
Systems that evolve with local needs, from urban cores to remote communities and agricultural operations.
Public innovation over corporate extraction. When autonomy infrastructure belongs to the commons, benefits flow directly to communities.
Case Study
Bottom-Up Autonomy
Comma.ai & OpenPilot
OpenPilot represents a radical democratization of autonomous driving technology—an open-source AV stack that transforms consumer vehicles into semi-autonomous systems.
- Community-developed and continuously improved
- Compatible with dozens of vehicle makes and models
- Transparent algorithms and safety protocols
- Active user base sharing data and improvements
Canadian Innovation
Autonomy on the Farm
AgOpenGPS: Prairie Engineering Goes Global
Farmer-Led Development
Created by Prairie engineers who understood that $50,000 commercial systems were preventing adoption. Built affordable, adaptable solutions.
Field-Proven Results
DIY tractor guidance achieving centimetre-level precision. Reduces overlap, saves fuel, and increases yields across thousands of farms.
Global Adoption
What started in Saskatchewan now guides tractors worldwide. Active community spanning six continents, multiple languages, diverse crops.
AgOpenGPS proves that open-source autonomy can succeed where proprietary systems fail. By solving for farmers rather than investors, it created genuine innovation.
The Infrastructure of Open Autonomy
Three foundational platforms powering the next generation of robotics and autonomous systems.
PX4 Autopilot
Open-source drone firmware powering everything from hobbyist quadcopters to commercial delivery drones. Proven, reliable, and continuously improved by a global community.
ROS2
The robotics middleware backbone enabling communication between sensors, actuators, and control systems. Industry standard for research and production robotics.
Viam
Cloud-based robotics platform that simplifies deployment and management. Bridges the gap between open-source foundations and scalable production systems.
These layered technologies create a complete stack—from low-level control to cloud orchestration—all built on open standards and collaborative development.
Critical Question
The Algorithm Is the Road
Who Governs the Routing Logic?
Autonomous vehicles don't just use infrastructure—they redefine how infrastructure functions through algorithmic decision-making.
New Forms of Authority
When algorithms determine optimal routes, they become de facto traffic management systems. This shifts power from physical design to software logic.
Invisible Governance
Proprietary routing algorithms make decisions that affect congestion, neighbourhood traffic, and access—all beyond public scrutiny or democratic input.
Infrastructure Redefined
Road signs, traffic lights, and painted lines become metadata consumed by machines. The physical road is just the beginning.
If we don't establish public governance over these systems, we cede control of our transportation infrastructure to corporate algorithms optimizing for profit, not community benefit.
From Regulator to Enabler
Transport Canada as Catalyst for Open Autonomy
Regulatory agencies can do more than enforce compliance—they can actively enable innovation that serves the public interest.
Open Standards Development
Establish interoperability requirements and safety benchmarks that favour transparent, auditable systems over black-box solutions.
Regulatory Outreach
Recognize that operators will be ignorant by default and perceive themselves as entitled to rights without responsibilities.
Public Certification Programs
Develop pathways for community-developed autonomy stacks to achieve regulatory approval, legitimizing open innovation.
V2X and Mapping Commons
Invest in vehicle-to-everything infrastructure and open mapping data as public goods that benefit all autonomy platforms.
Imagination Exercise
What Could a Public AV Commons Look Like?
Municipal Fleets
Cities operating shared AV services built on open platforms—reducing private vehicle ownership while maintaining public control.
Co-op Robotics
Farmer and worker cooperatives pooling resources to develop and deploy autonomous systems tailored to their specific needs.
Federal Clusters
Dedicated initiatives that connect researchers, industry, and users to experiment, develop, and share best practices.
What possibilities do you see for open autonomy to address existing challenges, problems, and opportunities? What barriers would need to be addressed?
The future of autonomous infrastructure doesn't have to mirror existing power structures. We can design systems that distribute benefits rather than concentrate control.
Summary
Where This Leads
Open-source autonomy is viable
From OpenPilot to AgOpenGPS to PX4, functioning systems already exist. They're scalable, adaptable, and prove that sovereignty and innovation can coexist.
Canada can lead by design
Rather than waiting for external actors to define our future, we can proactively build commons-based infrastructure that reflects Canadian values and serves Canadian needs.
Trust through transparency
Building autonomy as a public good creates resilience, accountability, and genuine innovation—not just in technology, but in governance models themselves.
Jesse Hirsh
Researcher, Futurist, and Farmer
Jesse explores the intersection of technology, society, and agriculture—focusing on how emerging systems can serve communities rather than extract from them.
Let's continue the conversation about building autonomy infrastructure that serves the commons.