From December 2019 to 12, 5, autonomous driving demonstration operation on public roads will be carried out in Harima Science Park City (Kamigori-cho, Ako-gun, Hyogo Prefecture).Saitama Institute of Technology provides self-driving buses and provides technical support.This is the first time in Hyogo prefecture that an autonomous driving bus equipped with full-scale autonomous driving AI will run on public roads.
Harima Science Park City is a science town with SPring-8 / SACLA, a large-scale radiation facility operated by RIKEN and the High-Brightness Photon Science Research Center, and the Faculty of Science, University of Hyogo.This demonstration operation will be carried out with the aim of putting new mobility services that utilize autonomous driving technology into practical use and improving the convenience of regional transportation.
Saitama Institute of Technology will provide an autonomous driving bus under development and dispatch an autonomous driving operator for the demonstration operation of the autonomous driving bus on a public road of about 6 km round trip.This time, the test drivers for driving on public roads will be the drivers of Shinki Bus Co., Ltd. and West Shinki Co., Ltd., and Saitama Institute of Technology will be in charge of everything from prior driver training to support during production.Thirteen people will board the bus each time to experience autonomous driving.
The self-driving bus under development by Saitama Institute of Technology is based on the microbus "Liesse II" and is equipped with "autonomous driving AI (AIPilot / Autoware)".We are aiming for practical and commercialization not only for bus lanes but also for general public roads.This self-driving bus was released on August 2019, 8, and has a track record of automatically driving at legal speeds with citizens on public roads in Saitama Prefecture.
