Photo/Illutration The interior of a driverless cab to be pitched by Honda Motor Co. (Provided by Honda Motor Co.)

Honda Motor Co. plans to begin a driverless taxi service in central Tokyo in 2026 under a joint venture with General Motors of the United States.

Initially, several dozen self-driving taxis will be introduced, rising to 500 in phases, according to Honda’s Oct. 19 announcement.

It will mark the first commercial unmanned cab system in Japan by a leading automaker.

The envisioned autonomous vehicle will be able to accommodate up to six passengers as no driver’s seat is needed.

The cab is expected to operate under a Level 4 self-driving category, which requires all processes to be automated in specific areas or under specific circumstances.

Passengers will book cabs and pay for the journeys on a smartphone app, so there will be no human contact.

Honda said the service will kick off in some areas in the capital in 2026. The company will consider extending the framework to outside Tokyo in the future.

An amendment to the Road Traffic Law in April made it possible for Level 4 autonomous cars to run on public streets. Operators are required to develop operational plans for specific zones and obtain permission from prefectural public safety commissions.

As of now, the only such project up and running in Japan got started in May this year exclusively along a 2-kilometer section in Eiheiji, Fukui Prefecture. The strip is kept inaccessible to other vehicles.

Honda is having to confront a host of problems to make the service viable. One is that unlike the project in Eiheiji, cabs take various routes to get to the different destinations ordered by customers. Parked cars on roads in central Tokyo are another difficulty.

Honda said it plans to establish a joint corporation with GM and its affiliated self-driving system developer Cruise in 2024.

The specialized model Cruise Origin will be the brainchild of the three enterprises. Honda will apply to Japan’s transport ministry for the model to be certified.

But whether all will go as planned remains unclear, given that few automobiles with no gas and brake pedals have been screened to date.

Cruise has been building a track record in the field of driverless automobiles, such as getting the green light to operate fully automated cabs around the clock in San Francisco this past August.

However, an autonomous car struck a pedestrian already hit by another vehicle on Oct. 2, bringing the safety of Cruise cabs into question.

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