Self-Driving Company Launches New Vehicle in Japan

Self-driving company May Mobility is celebrating the launch of a service using a new vehicle fitted with its tech… in a new country.

While we have become accustomed to deployments of the Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS minivan housing May Mobility’s Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) solution in the United States, now the Michigan firm has revealed it is involved in a new project in Japan.

By applying MPDM and its autonomous driving kit to a customized version of the Toyota e-Palette shuttle, the company says it is demonstrating the flexibility of the tech – which it claims can integrate seamlessly with any form factor. The pilot also constitutes the first time that MPDM has been paired with an electric vehicle.

The new service will transport employees and guests around the Toyota Motor Kyushu Company’s factory campus in Miyata, Fukuoka, in the south of the country – a plant that is focused on the manufacture of Lexus cars.

The shuttle’s route includes six stops through a designated loop, and to comply with local safety regulations, a human monitor will be on board to oversee the driving. The autonomous vehicle (AV) has already been subjected to what is described as “robust testing and evaluation."

For more self-driving vehicle and other embedded tech news subscribe to our free newsletter!

Related:Self-Driving Transit System Launches in Arizona Retirement Community

Designed as a mobility-as-a-service solution, the e-Palette comes with leads for autonomous driving systems from third parties, as well as space to accommodate the autonomous driving kit, such as sensors and computing systems.

With MPDM fitted, the AV uses data from the sensors to enable real-time learning. Thousands of potential scenarios are assessed every second – even, it is claimed, those that have never been seen before – as the e-Palette takes advantage of the May Mobility tech to leverage AI.

And of course, as the pilot program evolves, more and more data is generated, allowing continuous improvement in the AV’s performance.

“Our long-standing relationship with Toyota is key to driving innovation within the mobility-as-a-service space and I’m excited to expand our autonomous vehicle product offering with the e-Palette’s larger, EV form factor,” said Edwin Olson, May Mobility’s CEO and co-founder.

“Toyota’s e-Palette platform together with May Mobility’s technologies will help drive us toward our vision of greater transportation accessibility across Japan.”

May Mobility has been active in Japan for some time, announcing plans to test with SoftBank in 2022, and launching those trials a year later. It is also working with investor NTT on further projects in the country.

Related:Ride Sharing Service Adds More Self-Driving Vehicles

In the United States, the company recently confirmed a deal with Lyft to offer its AVs on the ride-hailing platform in Atlanta in 2025, while it also launched its second fully driverless operation in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

It also recently embarked on a testing program at Peachtree Corners in Georgia, having successfully rolled out other deployments in the Bay Area, California, Detroit and Minnesota.