Macnica begins public road demonstration experiment in Nanjo City, Okinawa Prefecture to verify secondary activities that will be a necessary element to achieve future Level 4, using autonomous driving EV buses and road-vehicle cooperation.

Macnica (Headquarters: Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture, President: Kazumasa Hara, hereinafter referred to as Macnica) is a secondary activity that will be a necessary element for the future realization of Level 4, which utilizes autonomous driving EV buses and road-vehicle coordination. ^{* We will conduct a demonstration experiment on a public road in Nanjo City, Okinawa Prefecture to verify the technology to make 1} possible.

In this demonstration experiment, Macnica will manually drive GAUSSIN MACNICA MOBILITY's ARMA ^{* 2}, an autonomous driving EV bus with no steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedals. Using real-time traffic information using AI cameras and sensors, we will enable safer and more efficient remote monitoring in order to maintain and secure local transportation and further develop secondary transportation for tourists using Nanjo City as a field. , we aim to build a highly safe autonomous driving mobility system.
In addition, for the purpose of safer operation, in some sections, we will demonstrate road-vehicle cooperation through infrastructure coordination that visualizes road environment information around vehicles on the driving route, a first in a demonstration experiment in the same area.
In this road-vehicle cooperation, cameras and sensors installed along the driving route are used to grasp the driving route status in real time, evaluate safety, and enable supervisors to make decisions on remote control or switching to manual driving. By building a system to provide notifications, we will conduct technical verification to enable secondary activities during autonomous driving.
The travel information of autonomous driving EV bus will be linked to Macnica 's remote monitoring system "everfleet ^{* 3}", and the real-time operation status of the autonomous driving EV bus will be monitored and managed from a remote location.

[Summary of this demonstration experiment]
■Date: February 23, 2024 (Friday) to February 29, 2024 (Thursday)
■Time: 10:00-17:00 (7 flights a day)
■ autonomous driving bus: autonomous driving EV bus ARMA
■Driving route: Round trip route between Cape Chinen Park and Seifa Utaki

■Operation schedule: Operates during the times shown in the table below.

・You will be required to fill out a questionnaire on your tablet while in the car (while riding).
・Please note that there may be delays or cancellations due to traffic conditions, weather, etc.
・If the capacity is exceeded, you may be refused boarding.

<Coordination diagram of autonomous driving EV bus and road-vehicle cooperation>

 <Real-time operation status of autonomous driving EV buses by everfleet>

*1: Secondary activities are activities other than driving that a driver can do while driving.

*2: autonomous driving EV bus ARMA (manufactured by GAUSSIN MACNICA MOBILITY)
ARMA is an autonomous driving shuttle bus equipped with an autonomous driving EV system. It is an EV (electric vehicle) model and can run automatically for about 9 hours (100 km) on a single charge.

Total length: 4,750mm
Overall height: 2,650mm
Overall width: 2,110mm
Weight: 2,400kg
Gross vehicle weight: 3,450kg
Passenger capacity: 10 people (9 passengers + 1 crew member)
Power source: EV electric motor
Maximum speed: 25km/h (less than the domestic recommended speed of 20km/h)
autonomous driving level: Level 2 (technically equivalent to Level 3)

*3: everfleet (Macnica remote monitoring system)

In order to put autonomous driving into practical use, it is necessary to remotely monitor the passengers inside the vehicle and the surroundings of the vehicle. everfleet integrates and centrally visualizes vehicle data such as vehicle speed, steering, and remaining battery power in addition to mobility location information and camera images inside and outside the vehicle, and external data that is coordinated with traffic infrastructure such as traffic lights. It is also possible to collaborate with This makes it possible to grasp the operation status from a remote location in real time and operate autonomous driving mobility safely and securely. Furthermore, the system can simultaneously manage a wide variety of mobility vehicles in multiple regions and automatically detect and notify abnormalities during operation, allowing a single remote operator to efficiently manage the operation of autonomous driving mobility vehicles. By doing so, we can realize labor-saving operations and contribute to improving transportation profitability.

Mobility solution department, Macnica,Inc.
Tel: 045-470-9118
Mail:auto-solution@macnica.co.jp

*Company names and product names mentioned in this text are trademarks or registered trademarks of Macnica and each company.
*The information published in the news release (including product price, specifications, etc.) is current as of the date of announcement. Please note that the information may be subject to change without prior notice.