In Maebashi City, which aims to put self-driving buses into practical use, experiments have begun on the 16th to operate some sections of private route buses with self-driving.
Since 2018, Maebashi City has been collaborating with local bus companies and others to conduct demonstration tests of self-driving buses.
As part of this, from the 16th, an experiment to operate a private route bus automatically began in a section of about 1 km between JR Maebashi Station and Jomo Electric Railway Chuo Maebashi Station.
The driver sits in the driver's seat, but the bus automatically runs on a pre-set route, and uses 14 cameras and GPS etc. monitor the operation status in the control room.
And if there is a problem with operation, the driver will switch to manual operation and handle the steering wheel.
Maebashi City will continue to conduct experiments and verify the operation results, and aims to put the self-driving bus into practical use in the year after next.
Kenji Sato, managing director of Japan Chuo Bus, who participated in the experiment, said, "I expect that the self-driving bus will lead to the solution of the problem of driver shortage."