Nissan Motors and DeNA are trialling an autonomous mobility service, Easy Ride, in the Minato Mirai district of Yokohama, Japan. The vehicles will travel along a set 4.5km route linking Nissan’s global headquarters and the Yokohama World Porters shopping centre. Nissan and DeNA have set up a remote monitoring centre for efficient operation and customers’ peace of mind.
Nissan and DeNA will also test Easy Ride’s service functions. Using a dedicated mobile app, passengers can input what they want to do via text or voice and choose from a list of recommended destinations. An in-car tablet screen will show nearly 500 recommended places of interest and events in the vicinity.
Additionally, about 40 discount coupons for retailers and restaurants in the area are available for download on the participants’ smartphones. Participants will be asked to complete a survey about their overall experience, usage of content and coupons, and preferred pricing.
The field test will help Nissan and DeNA as they look towards future commercial endeavours. They will also work to develop service designs for driverless environments, expanded service routes, vehicle distribution logic, pick-up/drop-off processes and multilingual support.
The companies aim to launch Easy Ride in a limited environment at first, and then introduce a full service in the early 2020s.