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A former United States Navy fighter pilot and an autonomous vehicle safety advocate raised some disconcerting points about her subject matter during a keynote address at the recent Good Roads conference at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.

While emphasizing she’s not opposed to automated vehicles and artificial intelligence, George Mason University Prof. Mary Louise “Missy” Cummings said more research and safeguards are needed into this emerging sector.

Artificial intelligence doesn’t take into account every scenario, situation and blind spots such as stop signs obscured by vegetation, said Cummings. Her PowerPoint presentation included a photo of a stop sign with a myriad of confusing “No Turn” symbols.

There have also been a number of accidents involving automated vehicles, she pointed out.

One of the misconceptions about automated vehicles is that there are completely automated. But, in fact, they are managed by specialized technology firms and/or large automakers and, in many cases, those companies are based overseas.

“Offshoring remote assistants offshore is unacceptable,” she said.

Focusing on the use of Artificial Intelligence as a safety management tool, Cummings warned about an overreliance and compared that system to an “embedded Swiss cheese model.” Many hazards are able to seep through the cheese block holes including inadequate oversight, design, maintenance and testing.

“Don’t make decisions about (the use) of AI based on hype. It is a tool in your toolbox — not a solution to everything,” she said.

Cummings’ presentation was delivered on the third day of the four-day conference which featured a number of speakers in the hotel’s main Canadian Room, with breakout sessions in smaller meeting rooms.

Some of those sessions included one on municipal construction procurement procedures, one on managing and financing infrastructure projects and a third on pipeline safety and damage prevention safeguards.

A major highlight was the announcement of the 2025 Municipal Concrete Award winners. Sponsored by Concrete Ontario, the award recognizes successful project excellence and innovation collaboration between municipalities and contractors.

The 2025 recipients are the City of Ottawa and R.W. Tomlinson Ltd for the design and construction of the Stefan Wenek Skatepark at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex in Orleans. Named after artist and skateboarder Stefan Wenek, it consists of large architectural hardscape of flatwork concrete poured by shotcrete and cast-in-place concrete methods. In combination with the centrepiece Skatepark, the project also contained traditional curbs, sidewalks and asphalt paving for the community centre upgrades to the parking lots and walkways.

Other conference milestones included the election of Toronto City Coun. Paul Ainslie as Good Roads’ new president and the naming of David Grabel as its Volunteer of the Year Award winner. Grabel is a manager at WSP Canada, with several years’ experience in contract administration.

The conferenced attracted approximately 1,400 paid attendees.