Japan to test autoflow roads for self-driving freight vehicles

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.