Macnica supports the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's autonomous driving Social Implementation Promotion Project (Priority Support Project) in the Tono region of Gifu Prefecture, where Japan's first wide-area collaboration and autonomous driving demonstration project will take place.

Macnica (Headquarters: Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture; Representative Director and President: Kazumasa Hara; hereinafter referred to as Macnica) announced ^​today that it will support the autonomous driving autonomous driving demonstration operations among six local governments. This project will be led by the Tono Regional autonomous driving Promotion Consortium ^{* 2} and will be carried out in collaboration with Macnica, which has a proven track record of conducting numerous demonstration experiments in a variety of environments and use cases across Japan.

■Background/purpose
In the Tono region of Gifu Prefecture and Gero City, amid a shortage of transportation options due to a declining birthrate and aging population, maintaining and securing existing regional transportation is a short-term challenge. In order to further expand the regional transportation network and build a sustainable ecosystem in the medium to long term, with an eye toward the opening of the Linear Chuo Shinkansen and the establishment of a graduate school, it is necessary to quickly address the issue of implementing Level 4 autonomous driving services that do not rely on human operation.In addition to operating autonomous driving vehicles, we aim to provide sustainable transportation services by redesigning transportation services to suit the characteristics and needs of each region.

■Outline of the demonstration operation
・Implementing body: Tono Region autonomous driving Promotion Consortium
Demonstration content: Aiming to achieve Level 4, this project will conduct demonstration operations at Level 2
・Demonstration vehicle: Navya Mobility ^{* 3} EVO (Tajimi City, Toki City, Ena City, Nakatsugawa City)
Tier IV ^{* 4} Minibus 2.0 (Mizunami City, Gero City)
・Demonstration period: Late September to early December
・Operating area:
Ena City "Meichi Railway Iwamura Station - Iwamura Historical Museum"
Tajimi City "White Town Area"
Nakatsugawa City "Kamisaka Elementary and Junior High School - Magome-juku"
Mizunami City "Mizunami Station - Mizunami City Hall"
Toki City "Toki City Station - Toki City Hall"
Gero City "Gero Station - Gero Onsen Hospital"

■ Roles of each party
(1) Ena City, Tajimi City, Nakatsugawa City, Mizunami City, Toki City, Gero City
Operator of autonomous driving business, provision of driving routes, etc.
(2) NTT West Group
Project management, overall requirements and configuration review, field verification planning and coordination, data acquisition necessary for driving, setup, operation of demonstration test vehicles, etc.
(3) Macnica
Provision of autonomous driving EV buses and remote operation management systems, autonomous driving EV bus engineering and support, construction of operation systems, data acquisition and setup necessary for driving, operation of demonstration test vehicles, consideration of business models for future commercialization, etc.

■Future Developments
Macnica Based on the results of this demonstration operation, autonomous driving will continue to work on solving issues necessary for providing autonomous driving service (Level 4) by accumulating verification surveys toward the realization of social implementation of service (Level 4) in FY2027.
In addition, in anticipation of the opening of the Linear Central Shinkansen and the establishment of the Graduate School (Tokai National University Organization), through Japan's first wide-area collaboration of six municipalities and autonomous driving demonstration operations, we will work to "improve the efficiency of screening and procedures to obtain Level 4," "cost optimization and economies of scale," "demand creation and redesign of secondary transportation," "improvement of data quality and quantity The project will support the creation of sustainable mobility services through "mutual assistance in human resources and systems," and "common experience and brand formation for residents' services.
In addition, autonomous driving will further expand the regional transportation network by providing new regional public transportation services using EV buses, etc., and by linking various services in the city center with public transportation, aiming to create a comfortable city for residents and visitors to the area, and to support the creation of sustainable transportation services through the use of various cutting-edge technologies owned by Macnica. The project will be carried out through co-creation activities with people involved in the area, while utilizing various cutting-edge technologies owned by .

* 1: Based on in-house research. Six local governments will collaborate across a wide area and simultaneously conduct autonomous driving demonstration operations. The community will work together to solve issues and promote urban development throughout the region.

*2: The five cities of Tono (Ena, Tajimi, Nakatsugawa, Mizunami, and Toki), Gero City, and the Gifu branch of NTT West Japan Corporation concluded the "Tono Region autonomous driving Promotion Consortium Agreement," applied for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's "Regional Public Transportation Assurance, Maintenance, and Improvement Project (autonomous driving Social Implementation Promotion Project)" for fiscal year 2025, and were selected as a "Priority Support Project."

*3: Headquartered in France, Navya Mobility is a subsidiary of Macnica. Since its establishment in 2014, the company has sold more than 200 of its self-developed autonomous and electric vehicles in 32 countries around the world. In Japan, the company is working toward obtaining Level 4 operation certification through more than 50 demonstration experiments, including regular operation in six regions.

*4: Tier IV, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, is a deep tech company with the vision of "democratizing autonomous driving." It leads the development of the open-source autonomous driving software "Autoware" and provides software platforms and integrated development environments based on this software. For this demonstration operation, Macnica will provide the vehicles and their operators.

*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.