Self-driving golf cart a first in Canada, say developers

Two students at the University of Waterloo have achieved what they say is a first in this country: their self-driving golf cart successfully manoeuvered its way down a Canadian road.

Michael Skupien and Alex Rodrigues are the brains behind Varden Labs, a company launched in May 2015 with the goal of developing an autonomous vehicle.

• University students get $35,000 to build self-driving golf cart

They achieved that goal on Thursday, when their golf cart took less than 10 minutes to drive itself around Ring Road in Waterloo, a trip which involved stopping for stop signs and pedestrian crossings.

"It was pretty exciting, seeing that everything was working and everything was good," Skupien said. "We've done hours and hours of testing. So, I'm pretty confident in its abilities at this point."

Rodrigues, who was in the golf cart during the test drive, was equally excited by the experience.

"It's amazing how this works. When you first get into a self-driving car, it's insane. You see the wheel turning itself and you're really shocked and really on alert.... Once it's going, you get really used to it."

He said the next step for Varden Labs is to put the self-driving technology on a bigger vehicle and then put it for sale on the market.