There’s serious work being done on self-driving cars these days with companies like Google and Tesla leading the charge, even conventional car makers are jumping on the bandwagon to deliver fully autonomous cars in the future. While work goes on at a steady pace a company is Japan has decided to start road trials of its autonomous taxis, the tests are slated to begin next year.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Robot Taxi has announced it’s going to start road trials of robotic taxis by next year, it’s going to start things off by offering rides to 50 people in the Kanagawa prefecture located on the outskirts of Tokyo.
During these test rides passengers will be picked up from their homes and driving by the car to local stores and back home. There will be a human driver behind the wheel at all times to takeover should things go wrong.
Robot Taxi plans on launching a fully commercial robotic taxi service by 2020 if the tests are successful, the idea is to fill the gap in areas where public transport doesn’t reach and even to aid tourists in getting around town. Even elderly people will be able to take advantage of this service as this would allow them to get out and about without having to worry about driving themselves.
Filed in . Read more about Google, Self-Driving Cars and Tesla.