By KEIKO NAGAI/ Staff Writer
May 22, 2023 at 18:25 JST
A driverless vehicle carries local residents in Eiheiji, Fukui Prefecture, on May 21. (Keiko Nagai)
EIHEIJI, Fukui Prefecture--Officials and local residents celebrated the rollout of Japan’s first commercial operation of fully autonomous passenger vehicles here on May 21 that is expected to boost public transportation in the nation.
Starting from May 28, a public-private partnership will operate the shuttle service on weekends and holidays for 100 yen ($0.73) for adults and half that price for junior high school students and younger.
The government plans to launch similar services in 50 areas across the country by 2025.
The seven-seater electric vehicles travel a 2-kilometer route in approximately 10 minutes with a maximum speed of 12 kph.
The partnership in Eiheiji is the first operator to get the green light for a Level 4 service on the five-level scale of vehicle autonomy.
Unlike Level 3, a Level 4 service doesn’t need a human operator remotely monitoring and ready to take over the driving immediately in the event of an emergency.
Level 4 operations are only available on fixed routes while there is no such limitation for Level 5 operations.
The operator introduced a Level 3 service in 2021.
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