Uber Technologies Inc. has allocated $150 million to growing its engineering operations in Toronto as part of a newly announced expansion that will boost its self-driving car initiative and other key projects.

The plan was made public today in conjunction with a visit to the city by Uber Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi. According to the company, the expansion is set to be carried out over the next five years and will more than double the size of its local workforce to about 500.

A significant portion of the new employees will join the existing research hub that Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group opened in Toronto last May. The division leads work on the company’s self-driving car initiative, with the Canadian branch playing a particularly important role. Toronto is one of the few cities where Uber has been testing autonomous vehicles on public roads.  

The company temporarily suspended trials in the United States earlier this year after one its cars struck and killed a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona. Uber put the vehicles back on the road in July under a strict new safety framework that requires them to be manually driven by a human driver. Moreover, Uber has added a number of new safeguards to its autonomous driving software including collision avoidance mechanisms.

In conjunction with its self-driving car initiative, the company is pursuing several other projects designed to enable future growth. Those projects will be the focus of the second engineering hub that Uber plans open in Toronto as part of the expansion.

The Toronto Star reported that the branch will work on Uber’s Jump bike and electronic scooter rental business, public transit partnerships and the Express Pool service. The latter offering is a carpooling option launched last year that enables users headed in the same direction to reduce their fare by sharing rides. Against the backdrop of today’s expansion announcement, Uber revealed that it will bring the service to Toronto.

Photo: Uber