Several companies to test autonomous bus technologies for public transit

Several companies have confirmed their involvement with a self-driving bus test project on East Japan Railway Company’s (JR East’s) Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines.

Kyocera Corporation, Advanced Smart Mobility Co. Ltd., Aichi Steel Corporation, SoftBank Corp., Nippon Signal Co., Ltd. and NEC Corporation will participate in the project organised by the ‘Mobility Innovation Consortium’, an organisation focused on promoting autonomous driving, led by JR East.

The project tests, which will occur between December 2018 and March 2019, will evaluate self-driving technologies for bus transit applications, including automated lane-maintenance control, speed control, parking assist and alternating passage tests on JR East’s BRT lines.

Through multiple BRT experiments, the companies aim to identify and solve technology issues that stand in the way of commercialising autonomous bus transit. Public demonstration rides will not occur at this phase.