Windsor, London part of Ontario's autonomous vehicle program

Southwestern Ontario is now officially involved in a province-wide program for autonomous vehicle development and testing.

The Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Network selected several communities in Ontario, each with a specific focus.

Cross-border driverless cars

Windsor and London are part of the southwestern Ontario hub, and will work on autonomous vehicle cybersecurityand cross-border technology.

• Autonomy: The unexpected implications of self-driving vehicles

"There will be investments made to foster research, to help entrepreneurs in the area ... to do testing, to perhaps link with larger companies that might be interested in investing or purchasing technology," saidStephen MacKenzie, CEO of the Windsor-Essex Economic Development Corporation.

• Canada not ready for driverless cars, Senate report says

The Ontario Centres of Excellence made the announcement Wednesday with many partners, including WEEDC, the University of Windsor, St. Clair College, the City of Windsor and WETech Alliance. In London, those partners include the London Economic Development Corporation, Western University, Fanshawe College, the City of London and Tech Alliance.

Autonomous jobs?

MacKenzie calledthis opportunity an "economic development play" that may ultimately create tech jobs by turning this technology into different companies.

Since the federal government is building the new Gordie Howe International Bridge, and the Ambassador Bridge also plans to construct a new crossing, MacKenzie saidthe plan is toimplement some of theautonomous technology on those two major projects.

"We're focusing on how this technology would be applied to international border interface," said Mackenzie, who calledit a "terrific opportunity."

Ontario to spend $80M

Roughly $80 million in funding from the province willbe split among the different regionsover five years, and that moneywill be matched by industry partners.

Each city had to apply to be part of this project, submitting a proposal and outlining the region's assets.. The process took about eight months.

Autonomous road testing

In 2016, Ontario became the first province to permit on-road testing of automated vehicles. It's unclear at this point which communities, if any, will be testing driverless cars on the road.

• Ontario, Michigan agree to North America's first cross-border testing of autonomous vehicles

• Magna joins BMW, Intel in self-driving vehicle development

Level 3 autonomous vehicles are alreadypart of a partnership between Ontario and Michigan to test self-driving cars at border crossing the two jurisdictions have signed a memorandum of understanding back in July.