As well as working with the Japanese city’s municipal government on the driverless project, Mitsubishi Corporation has been nominated as a private sector partner in Kamakura’s Super City concept.
Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is working with the Japanese municipal government of Kamakura City on a smart city driverless vehicle pilot for healthcare services in the cities of Kamakura and Fujisawa.
Read more: JP: Kamakura City launches autonomous driving and healthcare pilot
Mitsubishi Corp is in talks with Kamakura City's municipal government about developing its urban core and surrounding region into a smart city. Recently, the partnership joined forces with four other interests to commence a pilot project that will combine autonomous-driving technologies and healthcare services in Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark). Along with Shonan iPark, the other partners on this project are Tokushukai Shonan Kamakura General Hospital (Kamakura General), Macnica Inc and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
One of the keys to the scheme will be making local medical services more convenient and accessible. Recently, Mitsubishi has been working with the five parties to monitor roughly 1,000 residents of Kamakura and Fujisawa cities and augment those cities' various medical services with self-driving vehicles.
Read more: JP: Smart city driverless vehicle pilot project planned for Kamakura & Fujisawa areas
Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has been in talks with Kamakura City's municipal government about developing its urban core and surrounding region into a smart city. Recently, our partnership joined forces with four other interests to commence a pilot project that will combine autonomous-driving technologies and healthcare services in Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark). Along with Shonan iPark, our other partners on this project are Tokushukai Shonan Kamakura General Hospital (Kamakura General), Macnica, Inc. and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
The integration of AI and the connected devices of the IoT - having been anticipated for years to solve social issues such as in the form of smart cities - is now on its way to making inroads in multiple sectors and creating opportunities for genuine digital transformation. Such transformation will be crucial in the shift towards truly smart cities, which has been given further impetus by the pandemic.
But among the technological bottlenecks to full deployment are delays due to connecting to internet servers and the capacity limits of the microchips installed on devices and components.
Read more: Smarter Tech for ‘Super-efficient’ Smarter Cities in Japan
Autonomous cars, commonly known as self-driving cars, aren’t new in Japan — nor the automotive industry.
But whilst the rest of the developed world is pushing for autonomous vehicles largely for reasons of safety and convenience for people in general, Japan’s a little different.
It’s to compensate for its aging population.
Read more: Japan’s betting on autonomous cars – for a unique reason