Earlier in the week we noted that Japan Government is considering widespread deployment of driverless cars by 2020.

Today we noticed another little tidbit in an article at Tech On!

 [Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)] plans to clarify the issues related to automated driving and compile an interim report by March 2013. This is the first time in the world that a ministry or an equivalent government organization has started to seriously consider the introduction of automated driving, MLIT said.

The Japanese Government wants two of its parliamentary secretaries to have bi-monthly meetings with Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda and Fuji Heavy Industries on the issue of automated driving. In a nutshell: Japan seems to be taking this very seriously.

We have had very little to say about Japan since starting this blog.

That fact has been somewhat surprising as Japan has such a reputation for being a leader in technological development. While reports have emanated from Britain, Korea, China, Germany and the USA, things have been quiet up until today.

The Japanese government has announced it is taking the first, tentative, steps towards driverless car development:

In a bid to make the dream a reality, the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry is launching a programme featuring an expert study panel. Discussions about how best to proceed are also set to get underway.

Initial suggestions are that drivers would manually control their car on minor roads away from their home, before switching to ‘automatic driving’ after joining an expressway, which would feature a specific lane for autopilot vehicles.

Speaking to the news provider, a Road Bureau spokesperson said: “The system could prevent such accidents as a vehicle veering out of a lane, as happened with the tour bus that struck a wall alongside Kanetsu Expressway on April 29.

“The planned autopilot system, in combination with the road information transmission system already in place, will make it technically possible to realise driverless driving in about ten years.”

More here