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Friday, August 1, 2025, 17:41 GMT+7

Japan to test autoflow roads for self-driving freight vehicles

TOKYO -- Japan's transport ministry will test the feasibility of transporting goods on so-called autoflow roads, dedicated highways for autonomous freight vehicles, from November through February 2026, officials said Thursday.

Japan to test autoflow roads for self-driving freight vehicles- Ảnh 1.

Delivery trucks are parked at a parking area along the highway in Chiba, east of Tokyo, Japan, April 6, 2023. Photo: Reuters

The ministry plans to introduce such roads, which will be built on medians of expressways or underneath them, in some expressway sections between Tokyo and Osaka in the mid-2030s.

The plan comes as the ministry forecasts some 940 million metric tons in shortfall of transportation capacity for fiscal 2030 amid a chronic shortage of truck drivers.

Building autoflow roads is expected to cover 8 to 22 pct of that lack of capacity, the officials said.

For the test, the ministry will use a test track at its National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management to look for a suitable road width for autonomous freight vehicles and check transportation safety.

Autonomous freight vehicles are expected to run on autoflow roads at a similar speed as conventional cargo trucks, which usually run at 70 to 80 kilometers per hour.

Such roads will be open 24 hours a day.

To consider a specific route for the system, the ministry plans to test autonomous freight vehicles by fiscal 2027 in a section of the Shin-Tomei Expressway that is not yet open to traffic between Kanagawa and Shizuoka prefectures.

Jiji Press

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