| Day1 11/15 Wed |
The 18th UC-win/Road Conference
Autonomous Driving Conference |
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Approach of Relevant Ministries and Agencies to Automated Driving with Rising Expectation
| Following the opening remarks by FORUM8 President Yuji Ito, "UC-win/Road
Conference" <Automated Driving Conference> opened up with "Age
of Virtual reality. UC-win/Road(R) Presentation" First, our FORUM8
staff gave a presentation entitled "Development example and future
vision of VR driving simulator, training and exhibition system". As
the main functions of UC-win/Road Ver.12, he explained increase in size
and speed of space modeling by supporting 64-bit native application, linkage
with HMD of HTC VIVE and MATLAB/Simulink in the subsequent Ver.12.1, and
the features of the latest hardware including large sized DS system and
VR motion sheet. At the same time, he introduced unique examples of their
actual use. Including the elements already realized, he also mentioned
the functions to be extend soon, and the direction of development to aim
at after that. |
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| In the next presentation entitled "Development of environment for automated driving total simulation", our development staff stated that developing simulation that would contribute to evolution of society and new mobility was considered as their mission. |
Yuji Ito, FORUM8 President |
He explained the functions realized the latest UC-win/Road to fulfill the mission. They included faithful representation of traveling environment, simulation of sensor, linkage with the third party's application, and record/analysis/playback of data for simulation. After mentioning the developing points in future, such as support for automated driving, problems in creating spaces, improvement in various functions, and support for JavaScript, he also showed the concept for the next-generation products as further targets as follows: 1) Simulation of the whole mobility in the future including automobiles, and examination of desirable traffic there, and 2) Construction of platform to perform integrated simulation by extending the cloud system.
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Development example and future
vision of VR driving simulator,
training and exhibition system |
Development of environment for
automated driving total simulation |
Based on them, the first special lecture for Automated Driving Conference 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 "Circumstances surrounding automated driving and Connected Car, and MIC's involvement in them". After explaining the concept of "Connected Car", he summarized the points examined in the Study Group Focusing on Realization of Connected Car Society, including the following: 1) Changes in the role of cars by connecting in two ways with various kinds of information such as networks and infrastructure, surrounding people and cars. 2) Diverse Possibilities to be brought about by them. 3) The ways new services and business should be in the Connected Car society. 4) Issues to be addressed. At the same time, he outlined the basic mechanism and element technologies of automated traveling, required frequency of updating map information and coordination with the surrounding environment, roadmap to realization of automated driving, expectation to utilization of AI in automated driving and its advanced efforts, important problems about Automated Driving System in The Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program (SIP) led by Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, and a Large-Scale Field Operational Test for them. Furthermore, he introduced the action for realizing 5th Generation Mobile Communications Systems (5G), which is one of the key technologies for Connected Car Society and automated driving, and its advantages. Finally, he also mentioned the trend to draw attention in and outside Japan.
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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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From the afternoon, Mr. Keiji Furuya, member of the House of Representatives and President of "Parliamentary group for considering Automobile Culture" gave a speech on behalf of the guests. He pays attention to the fact that though the number of deaths from traffic accidents has been decreasing year by year, but that elderly people occupy a large share among them. He explains expectations for automated driving including the viewpoint of a countermeasure for aging and activation of the provinces.
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Mr. Keiji Furuya,
member of the House of Representatives
and President of "Parliamentary group
for considering Automobile Culture" |
The following Automated Driving Conference started with a special lecture entitled "The METI's involvement in automated driving" given by Mr. Naohiko Kakimi, Director, Electric Vehicle, Advanced Technology and ITS Promotion Office, Automobile Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). After reviewing significance of automated driving and main technologies to realize it, and the definition of the level of automated driving, he outlined the evolution process of automated driving for private and business use, actions of the government and METI about automated driving, present situation of automated driving technology and strategic division of its competitive and collaborative areas, and the future vision of automated driving. He expounded the following approaches to becoming the most advanced in the world for both in technological and business terms for realizing social implementation of automated driving first in the world: 1) As to automated driving, to precede business use, allowing to limit driving areas and methods, then widen to private use. 2) To set up important fields and accelerate actions for collaborative areas. Then he mentioned various public road demonstration projects of the nation based on them. In particular, he made a detailed explanation of the demonstration projects of last-mile autonomous driving and truck platooning. METI addresses these projects by itself since they have an aim of solving social issues and that their needs are high and feasibility is expected. He showed their respective present situation and schedule of implementation in the future.
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Mr. Naohiko Kakimi,
Director, Electric Vehicle,
Advanced Technology and
ITS Promotion Office,
Automobile Division,
Manufacturing Industries
Bureau, Ministry of Economy,
Trade and Industry (METI) |
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Next, Mr. Masato Sahashi, Director, International Affairs Office and Autonomous Driving Strategy Office, Engineering Policy Division, Road Transport Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) gave a special lecture entitled "The MLIT's involvement in automated driving". First, he introduced their main actions from the viewpoints of the MLIT Autonomous Driving Strategy Headquarters as follows: 1) Improvement in environment for realizing automated driving, 2) Promotion of development and spread of automated driving technology, and 3) Demonstration experiments and social implementation towards realization of automated driving. In particular, he made a detailed explanation about automated driving service based in Michinoeki (roadside stations) in hilly and mountainous areas, and diverse automated driving services in new towns. Along with this, he said that Advanced Safety Vehicle (ASV) including Intelligent Speed Adaptation (ISA) and Driver abnormality response system, New car assessment program, and provision of standards and technological guidelines were considered as their own major actions regarding safety of automated driving. In addition, as international activities, he mentioned the system for examining technical standards on automated driving vehicles with the World Forum for the Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (WP29) as its core, various discussions, and current situation of examination of countermeasures against automobile hacking. Finally, after referring to the way compensation rules of automated cars should be, he also focused on the importance of actions to allow users to have correct knowledge about the functional limit of automated driving and response at failure.
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Mr. Masato Sahashi,
Director, International Affairs
Office and Autonomous
Driving Strategy Office,
Engineering Policy Division,
Road Transport Bureau,
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism (MLIT) |
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The last special lecture for the Conference was "Trends of automated
driving and NPA's involvement" by Mr. Toshihiro Sugi, Director, Autonomous
Driving Planning Office, Traffic Planning Division, Traffic Bureau, National
Police Agency (NPA). He explained the situations of traffic accidents in
recent years, changes in Fundamental Traffic Safety Program by now, and
significance of automated driving and Driving Safety Support Systems (DSSS).
Based on this, he showed the intention of the Agency's actions about automated
driving that to contribute to securing and improving mobility vulnerable
road users. Then he pointed out that Article 70 of Road Traffic Act could
be interpreted that it would not prevent use of automated driving system
or field operational tests of automated driving on public roads if only
necessary response could be made in an emergency. On the contrary, as he
stated, in putting it to practical use, it would be required to not only
review the driver's obligation under the Act, but ensure that the driver
should take responsibility in safe driving in spite of automated driving.
He also outlined the research and examination about institutional subjects
of automated driving that the Agency had been conducting since fiscal 2015
with experts, development of Guidelines for public road testing of automated
driving systems, and research and examination towards step-by-step realization
of automated driving etc. On the other hand, through the Working Party
on Road Traffic Safety (WP.1) of the United Nations Economic Commission
for Europe (UNECE), they took part in international discussion on automated
driving while harmonizing it with Geneva Convention on Road Traffic. He
further mentioned research and development started from fiscal 2014 by
the Agency for establishing technologies for providing traffic signal information
and detective information of vehicles and pedestrians etc.
(Written by Takashi Ikeno)
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Mr. Toshihiro Sugi,
Director, Autonomous Driving
Planning Office,
Traffic Planning Division,
Traffic Bureau,
National Police Agency (NPA) |
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Tue. Nov.14 Eve 
