Urban mobility is immersed in a process not only of change, but of revolution. When electrification has not yet advanced to the combustion car in all countries, there are already those who move card in autonomous driving. And not with promises such as ‘Robotaxi’, but with autonomous vehicles that are already circulating in cities. Japan is an example of this and, after months testing an autonomous bus on a very specific route, almost 70% of the country’s prefectures want to.
And it is not because ‘Mole’: Japan is one of those countries that, almost more than any other, needs public vehicles without driver.
Autonomy Level 4. At the end of December last year, a driver without a driver began to cover a route of 800 meters between the stations of Takahama Eki-MAE and the terminal of the port of Matsuyama. It would repeat the path 60 times a day and, although its figures are modest (12 passengers and a speed of 35 km/h), it has become an example for something very concrete: it has level 4 autonomy.
The vehicle is quite bland, but it is up to sensors and AI systems that allow analyzing everything that happens around it in real time. It is what allows you to operate on its own, even in dangerous situations, and of the five levels of autonomy established by the Society of Automotive Engineers, this minibus is almost at the maximum level. Although there is an ‘Vigía’ operator.
Autobuses. The manufacturers have put the batteries, since Japan made a review of the Road Traffic Law with which, as of April 1, 2023, they allowed the use of level 4 autonomous vehicles on public roads. Several companies put themselves to it and, apart from the mentioned Matsuyama line, other companies are offering an internal bus service, all with level 4 certification.
They are very specific journeys such as Haneda Innovation City in Tokyo, with a level 4 bus that leads at a maximum speed of 12 km/h in an internal circuit of 800 meters or those of Tier IV that already operate a continuous service between the Komatsu station and the Komatsu airport.
Expansion. The government itself is promoting the expansion of this technology, setting objectives such as establishing services at the regional level in at least 50 locations by the end of this 2025 and in more than a hundred by 2030. Priority is mobility services such as buses or taxis, not so much private or logistics vehicles.
He liked it. Both the measures and the functioning of these buses have liked, so much that almost 70% of Japanese prefectures are considering adopting level 4 buses to guarantee the mobility of the inhabitants, especially in poorly populated areas to which perhaps not ‘rent’ so much send a bus operated by a human.
And is there any benefit to the traveler himself? At the moment, the studies point to rates that are not very different from those that are applied in conventional services, but the savings for the traveler is estimated at 11% for bus trips and up to 61% for taxi trips as technology evolves, matures and settles. But of course, that is the estimated thing, another song will be that companies apply sales as the product costs them less.
Need. And the most important thing about this expansion of autonomous buses, at least in Japan, is that it is not simply to apply technology for applying or saving jobs. It is something that responds to a real need: Japan has no workers. Long and laid we have treated the demographic winter that the country is living and the measures they are adopting (some more effective than others) to relaunch birth.
The problem is that the population is very aged, there are no young workers and that is why they resort to robots or autonomous systems. And not only urban mobility, since it is being considered that the first ‘bullet train’ debuts in 2029. And it is not that it is unique in the world (years ago we got one in Malaga), but as we say, in the case of Japan we are talking about something crucial because, if there are no workers, robots will have to assume the task.
Imagen | Iyotetsu
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