Skip to main content

Navya to operate autonomous shuttles in Japan 

Navya is to deploy autonomous electric shuttles in the Japanese city of Sakai in April.
By Ben Spencer February 24, 2020 Read time: 1 min
Left to right: Henri Coron (Navya chief business development officer), Atsushi Sato (Macnica president),  Masahiro Hashimoto (Sakai Mayor), Yuki SAJI - SB Drive (president). Source: Navya

The company says this is to address a shortage of bus and taxi drivers. 

Henri Coron, chief business development officer at Navya, says deployment comes only six months after obtaining permission to operate on public roads in Japan and is part of an agreement with Softbank subsidiary SB Drive.

Navya says the city will use SB Drive’s fleet management system to remotely monitor the Autonom shuttles. The vehicles will be operated by digital solutions group Macnica on routes that connect medical facilities, post offices, schools and banks. 



 

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Toyota and Uber to deploy autonomous ride-sharing service
    August 29, 2018
    Japanese automaker Toyota Motor is investing $500m in Uber as the companies intend to combine their technology to develop an autonomous ride-sharing fleet. Through the agreement, Toyota will deploy a fleet of purpose-built Autono-MaaS (autonomous mobility as a service) vehicles on Uber’s ride-sharing network. The Autono-MaaS vehicles will feature Uber’s autonomous driving system and the Toyota Guardian automated safety support system. Toyota will also utilise its Mobility Services Platform, a core
  • Meeting the challenges of smartcard fare payment
    July 4, 2012
    David Crawford monitors a growing trend in contactless smartcard ticketing The north east United States has become a hive of activity in the smart fare payment arena. In October 2011, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) published, as a preliminary to an imminent procurement process, the detailed concept of its New Fare Payment System (NFPS). Based on open payment industry standards, this is designed to be implemented on all MTA bus and subway services operated by New York City Transit (
  • Moscow pins hopes on V2X
    March 18, 2020
    A new transport strategy is aimed at creating conditions for the introduction of new ITS developments within Moscow – and 5G and V2X are on the agenda
  • Autonomous vehicles – saviour and threat, says report
    November 1, 2016
    A new report from IDTechEx Research notes that autonomous vehicles need no pilot, not even one in reserve. Many truly autonomous vehicles are unmanned mobile robots prowling everywhere from the ocean depths to nuclear power stations, the upper atmosphere and outer space. They create billion dollar businesses such as aircraft and airships aloft for five to ten years on sunshine alone carrying out surveillance or beaming the internet to the 4.5 billion people who lack it. Independence of energy and electri