Nihon Kotsu Initiates Data Collection Venture for Improving Autonomous Driving Artificial Intelligence
In a groundbreaking collaboration, TIER IV, a pioneer in open-source software for autonomous driving, and Nihon Kotsu, Japan's leading taxi operator, have joined forces to develop autonomous driving AI using data from Nihon Kotsu's taxi operations.
The initiative aims to improve the real-world applicability and safety of autonomous taxi services by utilising rich, real-world driving data collected from Nihon Kotsu’s taxi fleet. This data will be managed, processed, and analysed using TIER IV's Co-MLOps platform, a powerful tool designed to streamline the development, deployment, and operational management of machine learning models for autonomous driving.
TIER IV's Co-MLOps platform is central to this collaboration. It offers a suite of features that are essential for efficient, data-driven AI lifecycle management, including:
- Efficient management and processing of large volumes of taxi data. - Continuous integration of real-world data into AI model development. - Coordination of the training, validation, and deployment cycles of AI algorithms to accelerate innovation. - Enabling collaboration between data scientists, engineers, and operators to improve AI performance and reliability.
This partnership is a significant step towards realising safe and effective autonomous taxi services in Japan. The data collected will be shared with industry partners in the automotive sector and beyond, with the aim of developing Level 4-equipped autonomous vehicles and gradually introducing services in multiple regions, with a primary focus on Tokyo.
The collaboration between TIER IV and Nihon Kotsu began back in November 2018, with experimental data collection for autonomous driving. The latest project involves the use of TIER IV's Co-MLOps platform, designed to build high-quality datasets from large-scale driving data collected globally.
Initially, robotaxi services will be tested under a mobility hub model, with drivers stationed in the vehicles for safety assurance. As the project progresses, the focus will shift towards fully autonomous operations.
This project is part of Japanese government initiatives to advance Level 4 autonomous driving technologies, with TIER IV recently gaining support from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry under a subsidy program to promote digital transformation in the mobility sector.
The partnership between TIER IV and Nihon Kotsu will be deepened, conducting pilot tests to accelerate the rollout of robotaxi services in Japan. The outcomes from vehicle development and operational evaluations will be shared as a TIER IV reference design, aiming to lower entry barriers for new businesses and directly support the Japanese government's digital transformation goals in the mobility sector.
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The collaboration between TIER IV and Nihon Kotsu employs technology within TIER IV's Co-MLOps platform for managing, processing, and analyzing data from Nihon Kotsu’s taxi fleet, with the intention of enhancing autonomous taxi services' safety and real-world applicability.
With TIER IV's powerful technology designed for data-driven AI lifecycle management, the partners aim to develop Level 4-equipped autonomous vehicles and introduce services across multiple regions, primarily in Tokyo.
