Japan aims for highly automated driving on expressways in 2020

March 31, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government on Friday adopted a plan to realize Level 3 self-driving involving automated acceleration, steering and braking on expressways in 2020.

"Autonomous driving will be a huge weapon in our productivity 'revolution'," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a meeting of the government's Council on Investments for the Future.

Abe told relevant ministers that Japan should play a leading role in drawing up international safety rules for automated driving technologies.

Level 3 vehicles will be basically driven by automated driving systems, with human drivers dealing only with emergency situations.

The government plans to prepare legal systems for automated vehicles, including the definition of who should take responsibility for accidents, hoping to set vehicle safety guidelines by summer this year, officials said.

It will consider obliging autonomous vehicles to carry event data recorders.

The government also hopes to realize by 2020 fully automated, driverless bus services using Level 4 technology only in some areas.

Publi-private demonstration tests will be conducted to check systems to improve the safety of self-driving vehicles through communications with traffic signals.

The government hopes to showcase Japanese technologies to foreigners who visit Japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, according to the officials. Jiji Press