Unmanaged village bus tour

Japan seems to be moving closer to operating the public transport system automatically after a company unveils its unmanned bus, called Robot Shuttle.

Shuttle Robot is an electric bus model. Jiji Press reported that the unmanned vehicle had just completed its first tests on public roads in Japan last week.

Shuttle Robot is an electric bus model.

A shuttle robot has safely moved 400 meters along Tazawa Lake in Semboku, Akita Prefecture, northern Japan. Although the car only runs at a speed of 10 km / h too slow compared to reality, but the test was considered successful. The car was carrying six people, ie half the maximum payload of the car, completing the round-trip test.

DeNA Technology was the first to introduce the Shuttle Robot in public in July, but it has not until recently launched public trials. In addition to examining the transport capacity of the bus automatically,

DeNA also teamed up with NTT Docomo to use the Shuttle Robot to test the new 5G technology. They have tried to stream video of the vehicle's alarm system as well as improve its reporting capability.

The Shuttle robot has safely moved over a distance of 400 meters.

Local authorities are hoping to bring this form of automated transportation to smaller, rural areas in Japan in the future, the Japan Times reported.

Japan is not the first country to test unmanned public transport. A similar test took place in Australia last month and in Finland in September.