On September 2019, 9, Saitama Institute of Technology held a trial ride of an automatic driving bus on a general public road in front of Joetsu, Hokuriku Shinkansen, and Honjo Waseda Station in Honjo City, Saitama Prefecture.
Saitama Institute of Technology launched the Autonomous Driving Technology Development Center in April 2019 and is developing the latest autonomous driving bus that uses full-scale AI technology.This time, we used a highly economical self-driving car based on the microbus "Liesse II" with "automatic driving AI (AIPilot / Autoware)" and utilizing existing vehicles.I ran at the legal speed on a general road of about 4km on the public road around the shopping center in front of Honjo Waseda Station.
This is the first time for us to drive on public roads in level 100 autonomous driving without traffic restrictions.More than expected visitors visited the venue on the day, and more than XNUMX people, including families with children and the silver generation, experienced actual autonomous driving.
The experience test drive event was sponsored by the Kodama Youth Conference Center, and was realized in cooperation with Saitama Institute of Technology at the event of the September meeting "Future x Region x Experience" at the main store of JA Saitama Hibiki.Through the event, the Kodama Youth Conference Center aims to provide local residents with various future experiences and to gain sympathy for the future city design of the Kodama area.The self-driving bus used was supported by Mikuni Life & Auto Co., Ltd. (President: Hiroki Onishi, Headquarters: Kazo City, Saitama Prefecture).
