Level 4 Autonomous Bus Service to Start Near Haneda Airport

Kajima Corporation and BOLDLY Inc., an autonomous driving systems development and service subsidiary of SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434), have been conducting Level 2 autonomous driving bus operations – which sees hands-free driving under certain conditions in the presence of an operator – within Haneda Innovation City (HICity), a large-scale commercial and business complex near Haneda Airport in Tokyo, since September 2020 in collaboration with Haneda Mirai Kaihatsu Co., Ltd.

On June 26, 2024, the three companies announced that BOLDLY obtained permission from the Tokyo Metropolitan Public Safety Commission on June 21 to operate BOLDLY’s autonomous driving bus "ARMA" at Level 4 – which sees the system perform all driving operations without the operator needing to be ready to intervene under certain conditions – on applicable roads within HICity. They also received road usage permission from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police on June 26.

This marks the first time in Japan for a privately-led business group to be granted permission to operate buses under Level 4 autonomous driving.

For the time being, staff (specified automated operation supervisors) will be stationed inside the vehicle to provide passenger guidance, handle on-site events, and perform driving operations in cases where autonomous driving conditions are not met. Monitoring of the autonomous driving bus will be done by using BOLDLY’s operation management system called "Dispatcher” in Sakai Town, Ibaraki Prefecture. In the future, the companies plan to transition to operations without in-vehicle staff and have operators support passengers remotely.

The ARMA bus will run at a maximum speed of 12 kilometers per hour on a circuit spanning approximately 800 meters within HICity.