Global Auto Sector: Japan to offer driverless car services in 2020

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02:36

A race to start driverless car services has intensified, and Japan says that it would offer the technology as early as 2020. Terrence Terashima has more.

Japanese manufacturers are looking to accelerate their investments and R&D in self-driving vehicles. The efforts are backed by the government's drive to introduce the technologies to the market as early as 2020. But industry experts are split on the reality of putting self-driving cars on the Japanese streets by that year, when Tokyo is set to host the Summer Olympics.

KAZUO SHIMIZU AUTOMOTIVE JOURNALIST "Authorities have debated on how to make it possible to have self-driving cars in 2020. Instead of de-regulation, they eased the interpretations of the current regulations and technical standards. Legally, this has made their goal possible."

TERRENCE TERASHIMA TOKYO "Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced earlier in the year that the country will begin testing a driverless car system on public roads, with the goal of launching self-driving car services for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics."

However, considering Japan's notorious, multi-layered legal red tapes and cultural environment, many experts say it will take a lot more time for self-driving cars to become a reality in the country.

MITSUHIRO KUNISAWA AUTOMOTIVE JOURNALIST "If your image of self-driving vehicles is something you can hop onto after a drink or two and just get home automatically, then it will not be possible for another 30 years. Toyota and Softbank said they will jointly develop a platform for self-driving cars by 2020. But this is under a restricted environment or location. It is not really a practical application."

China is one of the countries Japan has turned to for this technology. Recently China's Association of Automobile Manufacturers and its Japanese counterpart agreed to cooperate in developing self-driving technologies.

MITSUHIRO KUNISAWA AUTOMOTIVE JOURNALIST "China is open to trying out new things. Their speed of evolution is much faster than that of Japan, and they have a potential of topping this field."

Fields where Japan can benefit from China are AI and network technologies, as Japan lags behind in those areas.

KAZUO SHIMIZU AUTOMOTIVE JOURNALIST "Self-driving cars require a vast amount of information to develop. China has already set some standards, such as those in 5G networks. It is best to cooperate where it is more productive to do so and compete in other fields, so they can become a catalyst to each other."

The experts also say they expect an increase in cooperation at the corporate level in the future. Terrence Terashima, CGTN, Tokyo.