Purpose of establishment
Local public transportation services with tight profitability are steadily shrinking. But in order for all citizens to participate in society equally, it is important to provide easy-to-use local public transportation services without disparity. On the other hand, it is also expected that the utilization of smart mobility using innovative technologies such as autonomous vehicles and AI on-demand systems will be the key to the survival of local public transportation. However, even if autonomous vehicles of Level 4 or higher, which can realize unmanned driving, are put into practical use, such vehicles themselves and the infrastructure for vehicle maintenance and charging (these are called “real goods”) necessary for public transportation service operation will be highly costly and service provision in areas of low demand remains difficult. In addition, autonomous driving demonstration tests currently underway in various regions are aimed at regional optimization of vehicles and operation systems, and in order for smart mobility to be widely deployed throughout the region, it is necessary to have more versatility and reduce introduction costs.
In this sub-committee, in order to develop regional public transportation services more extensively, we discuss about the possibility and institutional design of public real goods for smart local mobility, standardization of autonomous vehicles and operation systems, and the transportation services by using such smart local mobility, leading to concrete policy proposals.