| Day1 11/14 Wed |
The 19th UC-win/Road Conference
Autonomous Driving Conference |
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Accelerating Development of Technology and System towards Realization of Automated Driving
| Day1 of Design Festival (November 14, 2018) started with an opening address
by Yuji Ito, President and Chief Executive Officer of FORUM8. Following
this, Mr. Naohiko Kakimi, Director, ITS and Autonomous Driving Promotion
Office, Automobile Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Ministry
of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) gave a special lecture entitled "Our
Commitment to Autonomous Driving in METI" to start <Automated Driving
Conference> of "The 19th UC-win/Road Conference". First of
all, he expressed expectation on "mobility revolution" and "rich
life". Then he summarized the efforts towards technological development,
system development, excavation of leading business operators, and improvement
in social reception to be required for them. Regarding development of the
legal system, he mentioned "Outline of system development for automated
driving systems" formulated in April, and explained the examination
status of the following points: 1) Integrated safety securement, 2) Concept
of safety securement of automated driving vehicles, 3) The way that traffic
rules should be, and 4) Responsibility relationship. Then he gave an outline
about the policies and demonstration in the 2nd stage of "Automated
driving (expansion of systems and services)" of The Cross-ministerial
Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) led by Cabinet Office, which
he has been working for as a sub leader of the taskforce since April. Regarding
this, he also mentioned the area for the planned demonstration test in
the Tokyo waterfront area and detailed contents to implement. |
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Yuji Ito, President and Chief
Executive Officer of FORUM8 |
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In addition, as concerned projects that METI work on its own, he introduced
the following items: 1) following manned "truck convoy travelling"
using the CACC (Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control) system and the LKA
(Lane Keeping Assistant) system in Joshin-Etsu Expressway and Shin-Tomei
Expressway, 2) Demonstration experiments about mobility services using
unmanned automated travelling (last-mile autonomous travelling, terminal
traffic systems) in Ibaraki and Fukui Prefectures.
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Mr. Naohiko Kakimi, Director,
ITS and Autonomous Driving Promotion Office,
Automobile Division,
Manufacturing Industries Bureau,
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry |
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The following special lecture was given by Mr. Gaku Nakazato, Director,
New-Generation Mobile Communications Office, Land Mobile Communications
Division, Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of Internal
Affairs and Communications (MIC), entitled "Trends towards the mobility
system of the next generation and commitments of MIC".
At the beginning, he summarized the positions of "Construction of
the mobility system of the next generation" in "Future Investment
Strategy 2018", "Public-Private ITS Initiative/Roadmaps 2018",
"Outline of system development for automated driving systems",
and information-communication infrastructure development in the 2nd stage
of "Automated driving (expansion of systems and services)" of
SIP. At the same time, he also gave a brief account of government-private
large projects related to automated driving proceeding in Western countries
and trends of technological development and marketing for automated driving
in and outside the nation. Then he reviewed the flow of progress of mobile
communication systems, and advanced his speech into the 5th Generation
Mobile Communications system (5G), which is expected to have almost real-time
control required for automated driving with ultra-low latency enabled by
acceleration and capacity enlargement of mobile communications as new technology
of 2020's. MIC is planning to commercialize 5G by 2020 when the Tokyo Olympic
Games and the Paralympic Games will be held, and dispatch demonstration
of examples of specific uses. MIC is planning to assign frequencies for
5G to companies by March 2019, and also conducting demonstration tests
along with research and development. Therefore, he also mentioned the overview
of the demonstration projects, their partial outcome, and ongoing activities.
In addition, according to him, MIC plans not only to invite ideas widely
about utilization of 5G including automated driving but also focus on developing
diverse kinds of technologies and communication environment on its own
by 2020 as a target year.
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Mr. Gaku Nakazato, Director,
New-Generation Mobile Communications Office,
Land Mobile Communications Division,
Radio Department, Telecommunications Bureau,
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) |
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At the end of the morning part, a special lecture entitled "Activities
towards realization of automated driving services" was given by Mr.
Katsuya Abe, Director, ITS Policy and Program Office, Road Traffic Control
Division, Road Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and
Tourism (MLIT).
As the background of why Road Bureau makes efforts to realization of automated
driving in the hilled rural areas, he explained some problems of mobility
such as rapid aging and decline of public transportation. He also mentioned
the present situation that functions including medical services, administration,
finance, and shopping are put together around many of "Michinoeki
(roadside stations)" established all over the nation at about 1,400
points. He talked about the circumstances that had made MLIT start social
experiments of automated driving services using road-vehicle cooperation
based in the "roadside stations" situated in hilly and mountainous
areas in the 2017 fiscal year with budget support from SIP. The experiments
have been conducted to examine 1) Reaction of the road administrators such
as road structure that contributes to automated driving, 2) Regional environment
such as weather conditions and communication conditions, 3) Cost, 4) Social
receptivity, and 5) economic effects on the region. As part of them, he
talked about the change in awareness and requests of the residents about
automated driving before and after the experiments seen through the questionnaire
about social receptivity, and the event (problem) that automated driving
was switched to manual driving during the experiments. Subsequently, he
mentioned the aim of this fiscal year, that is, social implementation by
2020, and that put emphasis on verification of whether this can be realized
as a business model. He gave a brief account of the business model with
automated driving of ongoing demonstration experiments based in "Minami
Alps Murahase" (Ina city in Nagano pref.) and its operation system.
Besides, he introduced activities such as 1) support for automated driving
by providing information at the merging area of expressway, 2) developing
electronic road databases with three-dimensional point cloud data in consideration
of utilizing them for automated driving.
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Mr. Katsuya Abe, Director,
ITS Policy and Program Office,
Road Traffic Control Division, Road Bureau,
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism (MLIT) |
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In the afternoon, Mr. Keiji Furuya, a member of the House of Representatives
(serving as President of "Parliamentary group for considering Automobile
Culture" etc.) gave a guest greeting speech. While mentioning the
present situation of a labor shortage in Gifu pref., his local region as
an example and expectation for the Chuo Shinkansen, he envisioned the possibilities
in brought about by automated driving, which will become full-fledged based
on utilization of 5G to come. He explained the view that the efforts in
the concerned area would be the keystone of growth strategies.
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Mr. Keiji Furuya,
President of "Parliamentary group for considering Automobile Culture",
Member of the House of Representatives |
The first special lecture was "Efforts towards realization of automated
driving" given by Mr. Takahiro Hirasawa, Director, Automated Driving
Strategy Office, Engineering Policy Division, Road Bureau, MLIT.
He outlined the significance and definition of automated driving, and trends
of automated driving technologies of automobile manufacturers. At the same
time, he also explained the latest version of "Public-Private ITS
Initiative/Roadmaps", which draws a scenario for marketing and implementation
of services of automated driving systems, such as realizing level-3 automated
driving with a private car on expressways by 2020 (by 2025 for level-4).
Then, partly because MLIT is concerned in "Concept of safety ensuring
of vehicles" and "responsibility relationship" among the
main activities in "Outline of system development for automated driving
systems", he explained a wide range of activities as follows: 1) Establishment
of Autonomous Driving Strategy Headquarters in MLIT, 2) Leading participation
in formulation of the international vehicle safety standards regarding
automated driving, 3) Preparation of "Guideline to safety technologies
for automated driving vehicles, 4) Examination of car maintenance and inspection
that support automated driving technologies 5) Establishment of Transport
policy council "Subcommittee for system development regarding advanced
technologies including automated driving", 6) Examination of liability
for damages for automated driving, 7) Examination regarding introduction
of automated driving vehicles into vehicle transportation business, 8)
Dissemination and awareness raising of "Safety Support Car S"
and establishment of a system for evaluating and publicizing performance
of automatic brake and as part of this, 9) Attention reminding for users
regarding the automated driving system on level 2, and 10) Demonstration
experiments (last-mile autonomous travelling, truck convoy travelling etc.).
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Mr. Takahiro Hirasawa, Director,
Automated Driving Strategy Office,
Engineering Policy Division,
Road Bureau, MLIT |
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The last special lecture for the conference was given entitled "NPA's
Efforts towards realization of automated driving" by Mr. Toshihiro
Sugi, Director, Autonomous Driving Planning Office, Traffic Planning Division,
Traffic Bureau, National Police Agency (NPA).
He mentioned that the aged people account for a high proportion in the
number of traffic accident fatalities in Japan. Then he mentioned compatibility
of automated driving with the basic idea of the Fundamental Traffic Safety
Program that has reached 10th. He then said that they aim at realizing
Level 3 on the expressways by 2020, referring to NPA as being involved
most with "What traffic rules should be" in "Outline of
system development for automated driving systems". Subsequently, he
showed his own point of view that automated driving is an indispensable
technology for reduction of traffic accidents or mitigation of traffic
jam and that he supports its progress. Reflecting these points, he presented
research and development of NPA towards practical implementation of automated
driving systems as follows: 1) Formulation of "Guidelines for public
road testing of automated driving systems" and "Standards for
managing application of approval for use of road regarding public road
testing of remote automated driving systems" to prepare an environment
for public road demonstration test, 2) Examination of the driver’s obligation,
how to keep data, traffic rules with the relationship between other party
concerned and automated driving as its core, including Review of Road Traffic
Act, 3) Participation in global discussion, for example, regarding how
to ensure compatibility of automated driving with regulation of Geneva
Conventions, 4) Practical implementation of automated driving such as the
technology for providing signal data and technology for providing detection
information about vehicles and pedestrians etc.
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Mr. Toshihiro Sugi, Director,
Autonomous Driving Planning Office,
Traffic Planning Division,
Traffic Bureau, National Police Agency |
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After these special lectures, the first half of the afternoon part was
concluded by "Virtual Reality Design Studio UC-win/Road Presentation".
First of all, FORUM8 staff in charge made presentation entitled "Case
studies and future vision of VR simulation – Utilization of automated driving/ADAS
package and game engines". The contents included the overview of "Hokkaido
VR Promotion Council" that started this year, characteristic user
examples utilizing UC-win/Road Driving Simulator (DS), major new functions
of the latest version of UC-win/Road (Ver.13, released in Feb. 2018) and
subsequent Ver. 13.1 (released in Nov. 2018), Outline of functions of the
automated driving and ADAS package planned to be released in 2019, "Railroad
operator VR" using game engine, an integrated all-in-one 3DCG application
"Shade3D series", and "VR-Cloud ® Next" supporting
big data.
Finally, FORUM8 staff in charge of development made presentation entitled
"The latest information of UC-win/Road, and new development of built-in
status and VR-Cloud ® Next". The speaker’s explanation included
new functions of "UC-win/Road Ver. 13.1" coming in the market
immediately, UAV plug-in option Ver.3, and functions of UC-win/Road under
development. Moreover, the speaker also explained the development concept
and functions of VR-Cloud ®Next, its system configuration, use examples,
and development roadmap in the future etc. while performing demonstration.
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| Case studies and future vision of VR simulation |
The latest information of UC-win/Road,
and new development of built-in status
and VR-Cloud ® Next |
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Tue. Nov. 13 Eve
