Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. has announced that it plans to start a transportation service business using self-driving cars in 2027.
Honda has also announced that it will enter the self-driving service field, and there are a number of moves by automakers to handle the business themselves.
According to the announcement, Nissan plans to start a paid transportation service business using self-driving cars developed in-house in fiscal 2027.
The company envisions a service that will operate in multiple cities, towns and villages across the country, allowing passengers to choose where to get on and off from a predetermined point.
Although the level of autonomous driving has not been determined at the time of the start of the project, in the future the company plans to introduce technology equivalent to Level 4, which allows fully autonomous driving under certain conditions, and provide services using unmanned vehicles. I am aiming for this.
The company plans to begin demonstration experiments in Yokohama city next fiscal year, 2024.
Mitsuhiro Doi, Managing Executive Officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., said, ``We want to provide a solution for regions where public transportation is difficult to sustain due to a lack of drivers.''
Regarding self-driving services, Honda has announced plans to start a driverless self-driving taxi service in some areas of Tokyo in 2026 in collaboration with American GM (General Motors) and other companies, and automakers are starting to develop their own self-driving taxi services. There are also a number of moves being made to do so.