Nissan Motor and DeNA will start Easy Ride robo-vehicle mobility service trial in Japan, starting 5 March 2018.
The field test, which will run until 18 March 2018, will take place in Minatomirai district of Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture.
It will allow Nissan and DeNA to gain knowledge from the experience of operating the Easy Ride service trial with public participation.
The test will be carried out on the 4.5km road between Nissan's global headquarters and the Yokohama World Porters shopping center.
A remote monitoring center, which utilizes advanced technologies of Nissan and DeNA, has been established to ensure efficient fleet operation.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, DeNA develops and operates a range of mobile and online services including e-commerce, entertainment, health care, automotive, and games amongst others.
Nissan and DeNA started their collaboration in January 2017 to develop a new mobility service that uses autonomous driving technology.
Nissan has brought its Intelligent Mobility vision, through technological assets in autonomous driving, vehicle electrification and connected cars and DeNA provided its experience in the development and operation of self-driving mobility services that uses artificial intelligence.
The two companies will also test Easy Ride's service functions. A mobile app will allow passengers to prove their input via text or voice.
The interior of the vehicle will also include a tablet-screen through which nearly 500 recommended places of interests or events can be chosen.
Customers will also be asked to complete a survey about their overall user experience. Nissan and DeNA will use the survey results to further enhance the offering in future field tests.
Nissan and DeNA will also work on developing service designs for driverless environments, extended service routes, vehicle distribution logic, pick-up/drop-off processes and multilingual support.
The companies plan to initially launch Easy Ride in a limited environment, and then introduce a full service in the early 2020s.
