Unmanned autonomous driving "Level 4" runs in the cityMarch 3 at 31:19

"I want to create a new society,"

is the words of the president of a company that aims to popularize Level 4 autonomous driving. With the enforcement of the revised Road Traffic Act on April 4, the ban on "Level 1" public road driving, which performs autonomous driving without a driver under certain conditions, will be lifted. "Cars without drivers go back and forth in the city carrying people and goods." Such an era is approaching. (Economic Affairs Department reporters: Daiko Nagoshi, Chikara Yamane)

Companies aiming to apply for Level 4

BOLDLY, a subsidiary of telecommunications giant SoftBank, is conducting demonstration tests at Haneda Innovation City, a large-scale complex in Ota-ku, Tokyo, with the aim of realizing driverless autonomous buses.

During the day, a driver's license crew gets on the bus and operates it in a way that can be operated at any time in case of emergency, but in the demonstration experiment at midnight, other cars are prevented from entering the road and the bus is operated without a driver to verify safety.

Under the revised Road Traffic Law, businesses implementing Level 4 autonomous driving must submit detailed route plans to the public safety commissions of their respective prefectures and obtain permission.

The company plans to file an application after April to start Level 4 operations at the facility.

Making autonomous driving a "local foothold"

The company's goal is to "secure a foothold" in areas suffering from aging and depopulation.

After launching a Level 4 autonomous bus in Tokyo, we are conducting demonstration experiments in cooperation with local governments to expand such services nationwide in the future.

One of the areas where we have high hopes for realization is Kamishihoro Town, Hokkaido, which has a population of about 1,5000.

Private cars are the main means of transportation, but the area is larger than Tokyo's 23 wards, and the aging rate exceeds 35% due to the decrease in the younger generation.

There is only one taxi company in the local area, and there are concerns about a shortage of people to handle public transportation.

For this reason, since December last year, we have been operating buses that are technically capable of Level 1 autonomous driving on a route of about 12.3 kilometers in urban areas.

The bus is equipped with eight high-precision sensors that detect people and vehicles and travels at speeds below 8 km/h.

The autonomous driving system incorporates a pre-mapped 20D map, and by pressing the start button on the screen inside the vehicle, the vehicle can automatically drive on the road indicated by the 3D map.

Expectations for elderly users

There is no driver's seat, but the driver currently stands at the rear of the vehicle and takes measures such as emergency stops with a device like a game console controller in case of emergency.

It operates four times a day, and a total of 1 passengers have boarded the train in the three months from December last year to February.

There are about 4 people per day, but while some elderly people have returned their driver's licenses, the response from users has been good.

User
: "I thought it was slow from the outside, but when I got on it, it was surprisingly fast.

Another user
: "When I don't have a driver's license and my husband can't drive, I sometimes walk to the hospital.

Level 4 solves driver shortage

From June this year, the route will be expanded from the current 6.3 kilometers and will be operated in elderly housing complexes outside the city.

The town is also planning a route that connects it with shared offices that opened three years ago to attract companies and campsites to attract tourists, and wants to increase the mileage of autonomous driving to seven times the current level, in total more than 5 kilometers.

Securing drivers is an issue when extending the mileage or increasing the number of trains, but if Level 3 autonomous driving is realized, the driver will no longer need to ride.

Mr. Kajitatsu, Manager
of the Digital Promotion Division of Kamishihoro Town, said, "When companies come from the nearest airport to Kamishihoro Town, they have to transfer to a private bus, and it is inconvenient to transfer. I think there is a possibility that we can achieve such a thing."

Remote monitoring of buses nationwide in one place

On the other hand, how to ensure safety in the absence of a driver?

Instead of allowing Level 4 without a driver, the revised law requires remote monitoring of vehicles.

For this reason, "BOLDLY" is building a system that can remotely monitor autonomous buses nationwide at one location.

The remote monitoring center in Sakai Town, Ibaraki Prefecture, is currently monitoring four autonomous buses nationwide, including Kamishihoro Town in Hokkaido.

Currently, each bus in each region has a driver, so it only monitors and does not operate the vehicle, but when operating at level 4, the center's personnel can monitor multiple buses and stop the buses remotely in the event of an emergency.

The company hopes to solve the problems of public transportation in rural areas where there is a serious shortage of drivers.

BOLDLY President
Tomoki Saji: "Level 4 will reduce the labor costs of drivers and allow them to operate more buses at the same cost Japan. From now on, we will create a new model of society using self-driving buses, and by 2030, we would like to Japan 1,<> autonomous buses nationwide."

Measures to address labor shortages in the logistics industry

With the practical application of Level 4, there is also a movement to address the labor shortage faced by the logistics industry.

Since regulations on overtime work for truck drivers will be tightened from April next year, there are concerns that transportation volume will decrease due to the worsening shortage of drivers, and it is said to be the "4 problem."

In particular, long-distance transportation between cities is said to be severely affected.

Therefore, Mitsui & Co., a major trading company, and Preferred Networks, which is engaged in the development of AI = artificial intelligence, established a joint venture called "T2" last year and are about to embark on a trunk transportation service business using autonomous trucks.

The plan is to run an unmanned truck on the expressway between Tokyo and Osaka, which is the main artery of Japan logistics, to carry various goods, and we aim to start the project in fiscal 2025 based on the government's targets.

The company is repeatedly conducting test runs using self-driving trucks under development.

A 10-ton heavy-duty truck was equipped with sensors and cameras that detect cars and obstacles, and it was driven at logistics facilities in Chiba Prefecture, and on the day I visited for the interview, I checked whether it could change lanes smoothly.

CEO Masaki Shimomura sat in the driver's seat and strictly checked whether the lane could be changed according to the pre-set program, and although he was able to change lanes, it was not as smooth as a human driver.

In addition, trucks change their weight each time, and on highways traveling at 80 km / h, they are easily affected by crosswinds, making them more difficult to control than passenger cars.

The company plans to conduct a driving test on an actual expressway in April, but Mr. Shimomura himself says, "We are still only about 4% of the project to completion, and there are many issues to overcome in the future."

On the other hand, since there is no need to wait to address the shortage of drivers, the logistics companies that are cooperating with the test have high hopes for the realization of Level 20 on trucks.

Kenichi Matsukawa, Senior Executive Officer
, Mitsui-Soko Logistics: "The 2024 issue is the biggest issue, but as a logistics company, it is our top priority not to stop the flow of goods and society.

In preparation for the launch of the service in fiscal 2025, additional funds of about 200 billion yen are needed to further accelerate technological development and secure necessary vehicles, and they are also calling on transportation companies and others that support the project to invest.

In addition, we would like to work with related ministries and agencies to address legal and regulatory issues in realizing Level 4 long-distance transportation that runs across multiple prefectures.

Masaki Shimomura, CEO
of T2: "It's a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm thinking of doing it as a national project to support Japan logistics. I hope that we can gather colleagues who agree with each of them and create a team that truly supports logistics in this country."

Can it lead to solutions to social issues?

The government has set a goal of deploying autonomous driving services to about 2025 locations nationwide by fiscal 50.

Expectations are growing for the role that autonomous driving will play in overcoming the challenges faced by Japan, such as labor shortages due to population decline and the accelerating aging of the population, especially in rural areas.

On the other hand, in order to spread Level 4, it is essential not only to solve technical issues such as safety, but also to further develop laws and regulations and promote people's understanding of autonomous driving.

I would like to continue to verify the efforts of the government and companies to see if we can clear these issues one by one and spread autonomous driving services that help people with mobility difficulties, such as the elderly.

Reporter
of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Daiko
NagoshiJoined the Fukuoka
Broadcasting Station in 2017 and is now a member

Economic Department reporter
Tsutomu
Yamane joined the Matsue Bureau in 2007 and Kobe Bureau before joining the
current club