A self-driving car service transferring travelers from the airport to the city center is being demonstrated in Tokyo.
The service starts with a human-driven airport bus taking visitors arriving at Haneda or Narita airports to central Tokyo. After that, the visitors transfer to self-driving taxis or one-seat self-driving cars to move around commercial buildings and other areas to reach their destinations.
The experiment is designed to find out what some of the issues might be ahead of practical use of this service.
Users register their destinations ahead of time with a smartphone app. Then in the self-driving car, the user reads the QR code in the car with the smartphone app and is automatically driven to the destination.
Self-driving taxis have drivers on board, but they only operate the steering wheel in emergencies.
The experiment will be conducted through Feb. 1 with the expectation that about 500 people will use the service.
"Through the experiment, we'd like to collaborate with fellow transportation companies and find out what kinds of new services we can offer in the future," said Kazutaka Tomita, the president of taxi operator Hinomaru Kotsu Co., one of the companies participating in the experiment.
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