Self-driving vehicles to boost presence around Haneda airport

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Japanese firms are stepping up their drive to introduce autonomous vehicles at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, a transportation hub for both domestic and international travelers, and its nearby area.

In Haneda Innovation City, a commercial and business complex near the airport, Level 4 self-driving buses — vehicles fully automated under certain conditions — will carry people within the premises for free.

The 11-passenger vehicles will operate on an 800-meter route at a maximum speed of 12 kilometers per hour, with their status monitored remotely.

The project involves Boldly Inc., a subsidiary of mobile carrier SoftBank Corp. that specializes in autonomous driving, and general contractor Kajima Corp., one of the companies operating the complex.

The bus operators became the first in the private sector to obtain approval from authorities to provide a public service using a Level 4 vehicle in April.

The two firms have a plan to introduce autonomous driving vehicles linking the complex and the airport on a 3.9-km round-trip route around 2026.

Japan faces acute labor shortages and the transportation sector is one of the hardest hit. The government is promoting the use of self-driving vehicles to cope with the shortage of bus and taxi drivers.

Last month, All Nippon Airways Co. and Toyota Industries Corp. tested a Level 4 towing vehicle at Haneda, in the first trial run of its kind conducted inside the restricted area of a domestic airport. After checking safety and operability, the companies plan to start using it in 2025.

Equipped with cameras and censors to avoid objects in its path, a driverless towing vehicle carrying six containers ran about 2 km between the tarmac and a nearby facility at a speed of around 15 km during a demonstration in July.