To make Japan a world leader in automated driving and help solve social issues, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism established an Automated Driving Business Study Group in February 2015 to promote the commercialization of automated driving in a set-up involving Japanese industry, academia and government. As well as investigating the current status and future issues for automated driving both at home and abroad, this Group has examined which areas should be the focus of industry-academia-government cooperation. This paper describes the history of these investigations and uses studies carried out in FY2022 to show the direction of future initiatives.

This paper first introduces the status of practical application of mobility with automated driving technology in Japan. This is followed by an introduction to the goals of the RoAD to the L4 project, its promotion structure, and the specific actions under themes 1 through 4. Based on the knowledge and experience gained from these efforts, the status of initiatives to support the AD MaaS social implementation projects (Automated Driving Mobility as a Service), which are being implemented in various regions, will also be described. After the results of our survey on overseas initiatives are presented, the future plan will be explained.

Truck transportation plays a role as a social infrastructure for logistics and is indispensable for the industrial and social activities that are the lifeblood of people's lives and economic activities. In the logistics industry, where there is a pressing need to restructure the transportation system owing to work-style reform laws, such as the curbing of long working hours, and to respond to the shortage of drivers due to the declining birthrate and aging population, one solution is the introduction of level 4 autonomous trucks for highway transportation. The current situation and issues regarding the efforts are summarized.

As part of the COI (Center of Innovation) project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology/Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), Nagoya University has developed a localized, low-speed "slow self-driving" system, and implemented it for the last-mile services in Kozoji New Town, Kasugai City. This service is considered to be the world's first implementation of an on-demand autonomous driving service operated by an NPO formed by local residents. The automated driving system is currently operated at Level 2 and features an operation management system and on-board vehicle operation buttons that even senior citizens find easy to handle.

The three pillars of social implementation of automated driving are technological progress, legislation, and fostering social acceptance. In this paper, fostering social acceptance is defined as "a state where society as a whole, including individuals, contributes toward minimizing issues and risks and utilizing the technology safely and efficiently" based on 1) recognition of social usefulness, 2) understanding of technology, 3) instillation of rules, and 4) formation of trust. Actions for fostering social acceptance for the implementation of automated driving will be discussed based on research results and case studies collected through the Cabinet Office SIP (Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program), the METI/MLIT commissioned RoAD to the L4 project, and other sources.

In order to implement automated driving in society, it is essential to develop the required legal infrastructure, including the revision of traffic rules and the clarification of responsibilities in the event of traffic accidents, in addition to the advancement of vehicle technology and improvement of road infrastructure. This paper presents the current state of legal development for the practical application of automated driving, the current issues surrounding legal interpretation, and future issues. In particular, in the transition period to an automated driving society, it seems useful to clarify a future ideal concept for accident liability through dialogue between engineers and lawyers with mock trials that assume a concrete business model, rather than just setting an abstract level.

This paper summarizes the historical development of ISO39003 which deals with the ethics of automated driving level 5 (completely driverless operation) and investigates the ethical considerations necessary for automated driving systems. Moreover, it considers the differences to German ethics regulations along with cases when JIS standards were used in Japanese criminal trials to determine the duty for care for negligence under criminal law. It is concluded that 1） “shared recognition” and “adoption” are the requirements for using JIS standards to determine the duty for care, and 2） considering the relationship between ISO and JIS standards and the common points between automated driving levels 4 and 5, ISO39003 could be used in criminal trials, subject to its roll-out and adoption in Japan.