Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has been in talks with Kamakura City’s municipal government about developing its urban core and surrounding region into a smart city. Recently, our partnership joined forces with four other interests to commence a pilot project that will combine autonomous-driving technologies and healthcare services in Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark). Along with Shonan iPark, our other partners on this project are Tokushukai Shonan Kamakura General Hospital (Kamakura General), Macnica, Inc. and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has been in talks with Kamakura City’s municipal government about developing its urban core and surrounding region into a smart city. Recently, our partnership joined forces with four other interests to commence a pilot project that will combine autonomous-driving technologies and healthcare services in Shonan Health Innovation Park (Shonan iPark). Along with Shonan iPark, our other partners on this project are Tokushukai Shonan Kamakura General Hospital (Kamakura General), Macnica, Inc. and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation.
One of the keys to the scheme will be making local medical services more convenient and accessible. Recently, MC has been working with the five parties to monitor roughly 1,000 residents of Kamakura and Fujisawa cities and augment those cities’ various medical services with self-driving vehicles.
The pilot project will likely involve the vehicles traveling to and from healthcare facilities to perform examinations, check patients’ vital signs and take their medical histories using digital technologies. If the pilot project is successful and the program can be rolled out permanently, then it should improve accessibility to patients’ homes and local healthcare facilities, enable those facilities to provide smoother treatments and reduce patient wait times.
Financial support for this pilot project is coming by way of Kanagawa Prefecture’s publicly-funded program to assist businesses that are engaged in trials of robotics technologies, as well as funding from the cities of Kamakura and Fujisawa.
[One of the self-driving vehicles]
[The pilot-project site]
MC has been nominated by Kamakura City as a private partner in its “Super City Concept.” We plan on making full use of our global business network, boosting the area’s value through collaborations with its local enterprises, and examining ways to introduce a variety of municipal services that are both safe and dedicated to improving quality of life.
In this new age of digital transformation, MC has been leveraging advanced technologies to introduce a wealth of urban services both in Japan and around the world. We have also been combining those efforts with energy-transformation initiatives aimed at lowering or even eliminating carbon emissions. To help realize distributed, carbon-neutral societies, we remain committed to “smart” urban developments that represent the next generation of city-management business, and we are pleased to do our part to make services in Kamakura and its surrounding region more convenient and environmentally friendly.
◆Shonan Kamakura General Hospital
1370-1 Okamoto, Kamakura, Kanagawa
Nobuaki Shinozaki
Operations/Hospital management
◆Shonan Health Innovation Park
2-26-1 Muraokahigashi, Fujisawa, Kanagawa
Toshio Fujimoto
Operation/Co-location ecosystem comprised of researchers, industry experts, venture startups, government, and academia who will collaborate and co-create – to accelerate research, with the aim of transforming cutting-edge science into impactful health solutions for patients across the world.
◆Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
2-7-3, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Kei Uruma
Operation/Manufacture and sales of a wide variety of electronics and electrical equipment.
◆Macnica Inc.
Macnica Bldg. No.1, 1-6-3 Shin-Yokohama, Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama,
Kazumasa Hara
Operation/Import, export, sale, development and processing of semiconductors and integrated circuits. Development, import, export and sale of electronic devices and peripherals.
SOURCE: Mitsubishi Corporation
