Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd (MHI) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machinery Systems, Ltd (MHI-MS), a part of MHI Group, will participate in Japan’s first trial project for autonomous trucks, to be conducted on a section of the Shin-Tomei Expressway (between Surugawan-Numazu SA/SIC and Hamamatsu SA/SIC) from March 3 by the Road Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), the National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management (NILIM), and Central Nippon Expressway Company Limited (NEXCO Central).
MHI-MS has developed and delivered the ‘Merging Support Information System’ that will provide data to support merging during the trial project. This system allows autonomous trucks to ascertain the status of traffic on the main highway well before reaching the acceleration lane, allowing them sufficient time to adjust their speed to ensure safe and smooth merging.
The Merging Support Information System is a mechanism for ‘Cooperative Vehicle/Infrastructure System’, an important function of autonomous driving assistance infrastructure, allowing vehicles to operate safely at the junction to the main highway, one of the most challenging situations for autonomous vehicles.
MHI-MS developed and delivered a vehicle detection sensor system and roadside processing unit. Information on vehicles traveling on the main highway is obtained from sensors placed along the roadway, and transmitted through the roadside processing unit to trucks attempting to merge onto the main highway, supporting safe and smooth merging. Specifically, since the status of vehicles traveling on the main highway can be ascertained before entering the acceleration lane, the trucks are able to determine a target merging point well in advance and adjust their merging speed, reducing the risk of impeding the vehicles traveling on the main highway. In addition, the information provided by the system can be received by non-autonomous vehicles that have a dedicated receiver, such as ETC 2.0, which allows drivers to use a variety of information services in addition to toll collection, and ITS Connect, which allows vehicles to obtain information on surrounding conditions to support driving assistance through direct communication between vehicles.
This trial will be conducted by designating a priority lane for autonomous vehicles during late night hours, and operating autonomous trucks on public roads. The verification of the Merging Support Information System, one of the components of the trial, will be conducted by confirming whether the information provided by the roadside unit can be received appropriately. The Japanese government has implemented the “Digital Lifeline Development Plan,” which aims to enhance the safety of autonomous driving, and establish an environment for efficient operation. This demonstration experiment is part of that effort.
MHI Group has developed sensing and communication technologies through toll collection and ETC systems provided in Japan and overseas, and believes that these technologies can be applied to autonomous driving support infrastructure. The Company also took part in the Cooperative Vehicle/Infrastructure System Demonstration Experiment conducted by NEXCO Central in June 2024 on a section of the Shin-Tomei Expressway that has not yet been put into service, and the results obtained from that experiment have been applied to the Merging Support Information System. As various services that make full use of CASE technologies(Note4) are being applied more broadly for road traffic, MHI Group, in addition to sensors and other vehicle functions, will support the development of infrastructure to provide roadway-to-vehicle information, and contribute to the establishment of highly safe and convenient next-generation mobility.