Updating "lifestyles" with mobility solutions that make a difference to everyday living
Osaka, Japan - As autonomous driving evolves and interest in MaaS grows, there are increasing expectations for their adoption in towns and communities. As the first step towards this direction, Panasonic Corporation has begun offering an autonomous ride share service for its employees around its headquarters in Kadoma City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
As you would expect of a manufacturer, Panasonic's headquarters are expansive, and more than 10,000 employees often have to travel to and from the many buildings within the vast premises. By providing the autonomous ride share service, Panasonic hopes to alleviate the physical and psychological burden associated with the frequent travel and to improve employees' lives.
Not only does the service realize reassuring autonomous driving in an environment with many pedestrians, unlike the experimental phase, the service is operated by staff in the administration department rather than by developers and other experts.
As a provider of mobility solutions that impact people's everyday living, Panasonic will continue to develop "Last 10-mile" solutions that invigorate people, communities, and the planet.
Overview of autonomous ride share service at Panasonic's headquarters
About Panasonic's headquarters and Nishi-kadoma area
- Property: 468,400 m2 (headquarters - Nishi-kadoma area)
- Employees: 14,200
About the ride share service
- 1 lap around the ride share route: 2.4km (travel time approx. 21 min.)
- Flexible operation depending on demand (max. 4 vehicles, min. 10-minute interval, max. 40 round trips)
- Every weekday from 9:20 to 16:30
- Reservations must be made using a dedicated app or from a dedicated website
- Service available for: Panasonic employees
3 core systems that bring autonomous ride sharing service to life
In order to operate this service, Panasonic needed to implement autonomous driving vehicles as well as the systems that support them. And to make the autonomous driving service a more familiar presence, Panasonic developed 3 core systems.
People-friendly autonomous driving system
Panasonic developed an autonomous driving system for a slow moving compact vehicle equipped with people recognition technology powered by highly accurate deep learning. Even in areas with pedestrians and vehicles, this system enables Panasonic to provide a people-friendly service.
Reassuring remote monitoring and operating system
The communication band estimation technology from Panasonic's TV conferencing system enables stable AV transmission and the automotive security technology together realizes remote monitoring and control essential for driverless autonomous driving.
Easy operation management system
Panasonic developed an easy operation management system that helps detect potential dangers by analyzing the wide range of risky driving behavior data obtained during operation and by forecasting. With this, operators do not need in-depth know-how about autonomous driving, and the service can be safely administered with just a few operators.
Other features
Panasonic designed a service that can be sustainably provided as infrastructure depending on the analyzed demand. Analysis of usage will continue after service launch and learnings will be used to introduce new vehicles, review operation, and to evolve the service to accommodate the users' and community's needs. Panasonic aspires to create mobility solutions that helps forge relationships between people and helps encourage an extensive range of activities.
Patent
In Japan (277 filed, 20 registered), overseas (537 filed, 56 registered)
[For inquiries]
Panasonic Corporation
Mobility Business Strategy Office
Mobility service team
mobility_info@ml.jp.panasonic.com
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Panasonic launched autonomous ride share service around its headquarters.
