Stratford is famous for reaching into the past with Shakespeare's plays, but now the city is looking to the future with self-driving cars.
Officials are currently in discussions to become a test city for self-driving cars and it may be just a matter of months before the high-tech cars start tooling around.
The proposal for testing in Stratford is being spearheaded by the Automobile Parts Manufacturers Association of Canada (APMA).
And Mayor Dan Mathieson says he believes all the tools are already there to make self driving cars a reality in the very near future.
"Many of us already have them in our vehicles today. Whether it's lane departure, or it's parking assist, whether it's laser radar, whether it's blind-spot detection. But this is the next level of that. And this is where manufacturing - and vehicle manufacturing - is going."
One factor that makes Stratford a strong candidate for testing self-driving cars is what is called 'ubiquitous Wi-Fi' - one Wi-Fi signal that covers the entire city.
Mathieson says, "Through this testing period, the opportunity to get live, up-to-the-minute data out of that car and get it into the hands of the people that are going to be running those tests are going to be imporant. They're going to want to make sure they have all the latest information and that safety and security so they not how it runs in certain conditions."
While Google's self-driving car has received the most notoriety, Mathieson says many traditional car manufacturers also working with self-driving vehicles.
He see's the APMA, Toyota Cambridge and the University of Waterloo among the partners involved in a potential Stratford testing program.
And most residents are receptive to the city being a test ground.
