Joint Venture that Includes SoftBank Corp. and Toyota Motor Corporation to Launch Expanded Autonomous Mobility Service in Tokyo Waterfront City

Starting August 4, 2025, MONET Technologies—a joint venture with SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434), Toyota Motor Corporation and other Japan-based automotive manufacturers—is offering a mobility service that uses autonomous driving technology on public roads in Tokyo Waterfront City (Daiba, Aomi and Ariake), and part of a neighbouring district. The service for the general public uses Level 2 technology, which sees a vehicle control steering, acceleration and deceleration while a human sits in the driver’s seat if there is a need to take over control. The new service is scheduled to run until December 19, 2025.

As previously reported by SoftBank News, in January 2025 MONET launched an autonomous mobility trial service that ran on the public roads of Tokyo Waterfront City—a large artificial island in Tokyo Bay—for approximately two months. The trial service served about 1,200 people, and 80% of passengers who responded to a survey said they would like to continue using the service.

Taking this positive response into consideration, MONET is expanding the service area to include part of the neighboring Toyosu district in Koto Ward, home to Toyosu Fish Market and one of the largest fish markets in the world. Furthermore, the number of stops will increase from the previous 5 to 11, and by operating along a total of 110 routes, MONET is aiming to better meet the mobility needs of even more people.

MONET’s Level 2 autonomous mobility service is using two Toyota Sienna minivans and will be offered free of charge to local residents, workers and visitors. Users can access the service by specifying their pick-up and drop-off locations on MONET’s dedicated website (in Japanese) and using the taxi hailing app 'GO' provided by GO Inc.