Saitama Institute of Technology has established a new collaborative system with Tier IV, a startup company that is attracting attention for its autonomous driving technology, and will set up the "Saitama Institute of Technology Autonomous Driving Major Tier IV Collaboration Office" on campus. The two companies will work together in an industry-academia collaboration to promote the spread of autonomous driving technology and to foster human resources involved in autonomous driving.
As the automotive industry undergoes a once-in-a-century transformation and autonomous driving technology is attracting attention, there is an urgent need for and training of engineers in the autonomous driving field.
Saitama Institute of Technology will increase the enrollment quota for the Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Engineering from 2025 to 4 in April 150, and will establish a new "Autonomous Driving Major" as the fourth major in the department after the AI major, which will be the first major of its kind at a university in Japan. The aim is to practice education and research specialized in the field of autonomous driving and to train engineers related to autonomous driving.
Meanwhile, Tier IV, Inc. has a vision of "democratizing autonomous driving" and is a deep tech company leading the development of the world's first open source autonomous driving software, "Autoware," which is promoting the social implementation of autonomous driving systems. The company provides its own software platform that utilizes "Autoware," and through the ecosystem created by "Autoware," it aims to expand the possibilities of autonomous driving systems in cooperation with partners around the world and realize a better society.
Saitama Institute of Technology and Tier IV have collaborated to support autonomous driving demonstration experiments by private companies and local governments. Recently, they have been working together in the "Fukaya Autonomous Driving Implementation Consortium," which aims to promote the introduction and promotion of autonomous driving technology in local public transportation in Fukaya City by bringing together eight businesses with expertise in the autonomous driving field to work on the development and social implementation of autonomous driving technology.
As part of their new cooperative structure, the two parties will establish a Tier IV Collaboration Office for the Autonomous Driving Major on the Saitama Institute of Technology campus, aiming to promote the spread of autonomous driving technology in the northern Saitama region and to cultivate human resources involved in autonomous driving.
