“Oshawa Engineering Mandate for the “Connected Car” – Hiring, Partnering and Expanding For the Future”
2015-04-28
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Today is a landmark day for GM Canada’s Engineering Centre in Oshawa and the Canadian auto sector as we unveiled a new Canadian engineering and innovation mandate focused on the “connected car” and green technologies that our customers crave for the future.
I was honoured today to be joined by Dr. Colin Carrie, Member of Parliament for Oshawa and the Hon. Brad Duguid, Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development to announce that our Canadian Engineering Centre in Oshawa, Ontario will be expanding, partnering and hiring a new cohort of Canadian control and software engineers as we refocus our work on the next major phase of automotive innovation and change. Needless to say, this is an exciting opportunity to be “where the action is” and to take our innovation ecosystem and academic partnerships to a new level.
Our new Oshawa engineering mandate starts with our need to hire more than 100 of the best software and controls engineers from across Canada to support new work related to “connected car” systems, environmental and urban mobility solutions. New activities will include the development of software and active controls that allow customers to take advantage of high-speed data links between automobiles and mobile networks. Today, “connected car” technologies are enabling an exciting range of new safety, environmental and infotainment applications. We will also build upon our Centre’s expertise in the use of alternative fuels, light-weight and advanced materials which help improve fuel economy and offer customers new and more sustainable technology solutions. And importantly, we will support GM’s future thinking in the critical area of urban mobility solutions.
So, why Oshawa and why now? GM is making this investment in our $190 million Canadian Engineering operation because we see an opportunity to take advantage of a wealth of Canadian talent in the fast evolving areas of mobile technologies, software and advanced automotive engineering. Oshawa sits at the mid-point of a world-competitive mobile technology innovation corridor running through Waterloo all the way to Ottawa. The talent is here and we are growing for the future. Ontario is currently producing more STEM graduates each year than the State of California. To borrow a famous hockey analogy, Canada has the bench strength and these areas of the connected car and green technology are “where the puck is going.”
Another key focus at our GM Canadian Engineering operation in Oshawa and Kapuskasing has been to work closely with Canadian auto suppliers on innovations in GM vehicle components and systems that help us improve fuel economy and deliver other vehicle breakthroughs that our customers want. Our innovation partnering with Canadian suppliers is an area where we have received tremendous support from our federal and Ontario government partners. That’s why we were extremely pleased to see new supports in the recent federal budget for innovation activity by Canada’s auto suppliers and the Ontario budget’s expanded support through the Jobs and Prosperity Fund. This is simply good policy as it helps Canada to build an advanced auto manufacturing sector founded on innovation and excellence in engineering. It bodes well for the future.
Related to our announcement today, we will soon also be launching a new GM Canada Engineering blog to keep connected with our university partners, suppliers, prospective new engineering hires and members of the Canadian public interested in the future of the automobile. We will share our thoughts and progress from Oshawa as we take on exciting new challenges in the areas of the connected car, green technologies and urban mobility solutions. As always, we invite you to engage with us on Twitter @GMCanada and watch for new ways to engage with our innovation team!