While the western world continues to trial its driverless cars without any paying customers in them, Japan’s Robot Taxi Inc.is taking the bold step of testing a driverless taxi service in 2016.
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Self-driving taxis could become a common sight on the roads of Japan, as tests are being given the go-ahead for next year.
Robot Taxi plans on using the experiment to promote innovation and startup businesses. The company said that it is working with authorities to hash out the details of the program.
Robot Taxi, the company behind the initiative, is a joint venture between mobile-internet firm DeNA and vehicle-technology developer ZMP.
“There are a lot of people who say it’s impossible, but I think this will happen faster than people expect”, Shinjiro Koizumi, one of Japan’s vice ministers, stated on October. 1 during a promotional event for the unmanned taxis.
The taxis to be used are retrofitted versions of Toyota’s Estima hybrid minivan.
Many other companies are developing self-driving vehicles.
There is no word on how many vehicles will be deployed during the testing phase.
For the time being, techs will accompany the passengers as a safety measure just in case there’s a need for human intervention to avoid accidents.
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Robot Taxi is looking to offer it’s taxis to global and local travelers, and also for locals in areas where public transport like buses or trains aren’t available. Experts believe that figure will skyrocket to 40 percent during the next four decades.
