Staff Writer, Dubai

Japan will demonstrate the world’s first Mobility as a Service (MaaS) self-driving experiment beginning Jan. 20 until Feb. 1, Tokyo Metropolitan Government has announced.

As part of the experiment, autonomous driving taxi will be used to ensure safe transportation from Tokyo’s airports to the city center Marunouchi area.

The area is planned to be approximately 3 km, connecting Tokyo City Air Terminal and Marunouchi Park Building and to be operated by major Tokyo-based taxi companies, Nihon Kotsu and Hinomaru Kotsu.

There will also be a demonstration of the autonomous vehicles around the Mitsubishi estate in Marunouchi Park Building, and Marunouchi Nakadori in Tokyo.

The fee for the service is about 1,200 Yen, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan government.

The vehicles used for the demonstration will include Japanese robotics company, ZMP Inc.’s RoboCar MiniVan and Robocar Walk.

Tokyo’s Metropolitan government reported that the ZMP RoboCar MiniVan is a self-driving car that has “several type of cameras and sensors which are used to understand the surrounding environment and traffic so as to run a vehicle autonomously.”

Meanwhile, ZMP Robocar Walk is a vehicle that in which the passenger “uses a tablet and autonomously moves to the destination. It greets passing people with smile in friendly and original designs to realize the safe and smoothly coexisting with people by mutual concessions.”

Foreign nationals in Japan can start reserving spots in the experiment Dec.2.