Panasonic develops two-passenger automatic driving vehicle

The Eiheiji Town Government, The Fukui Prefecture Government and Panasonic have jointly started the field test of the experimental autonomous electric vehicle.

Even if the elderly cannot drive, they will be able to go anywhere, any time.

Mai-road in Eihiji town, a 6.4 km long promenade which was previously used as a railway track has been chosen for the experiment.

Yaezou Shiotsuki, producer of Automotive Systems Company, Panasonic Corporation, said, "While doing technical development of autonomous driving in this place, we are talking about the problems with movements of local people and such things, it will be a long term experiment but we will proceed with what our technology should solve."

The autonomous driving EV commuter is equipped with technologies that have been developed and tested by Panasonic, such as a special recognition system and image recognition technology by Artificial Intelligence.

Shiotsuki added that "these mobility requirements are different from region to region; such as Asia, America and Europe. Eventually, mobile services will be required, such as using new mobility technology.