Robot shuttles
Japan introduces driverless buses to keep rural elderly on the move.
NISHIKATA: As the annual rice harvest begins this month in the Japanese town of Nishikata, the combines that usually putter along the sleepy roads lining the rice fields are giving way to a vehicle residents have never before seen – a driverless shuttle bus.
Japan is starting to experiment with self-driving buses in rural communities such as Nishikata, 115km north of Tokyo, where elderly residents struggle with fewer bus and taxi services as the population ages and shrinks.
The swift advance of autonomous driving technology is prompting cit
ies such as Paris and Singapore to
experiment with such services, which could prove crucial in Japan, where populations are not only greying, but declining, in rural areas.
Japan could launch self-driving services for remote communities by 2020, if the trials prove successful.
In the initial trials of the firm’s driverless six-seater Robot Shuttle, elderly residents of Nishikata, in Japan’s Tochigi prefecture, were transferred between a service area and a municipal complex delivering healthcare services.
The town mirrors Japan’s population profile, with roughly a third of its 6,300 residents aged 65 or more. — Reuters