Special delivery service: Japan Post trials autonomous parcel vans

Mobility is evolving fast in Japan. The country welcomes tens of millions of tourists each year, and the major sporting events in 2019 and 2020 will see numbers spike considerably.

The Rugby World cup in 2019 will act as a test bed for Tokyo ahead of 2020, when the country’s capital will host the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games. Just as it did on previous occasions, the Japanese government is keen to use the Games to impress the world with displays of technological supremacy. The same economic boom partially triggered by the 1964 showcasing of the Shinkansen bullet train is what Japan is hoping to replicate with self-driving vehicles in 2020. However, alongside the desire for autonomous drive technology, there is also a need for it. Japan’s ageing population has left a number of industries understaffed and in need of solutions. Japan Post is one of a number of Japanese companies that has been recently trialling autonomous vehicles (AVs), hinting that a solution is not too far away.