Investment in the R&D Company Advanced Smart Mobility Co., Ltd.
Centered on an Autonomous Driving System
Promoting Social Implementation of Autonomous Vehicles
to Solve Social Issues and Create Comfortable Towns

February 5, 2020
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
Advanced Smart Mobility Co., Ltd.

Tokyo, Japan, February 5, 2020—Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., a leading global real estate company headquartered in Tokyo, has invested in Advanced Smart Mobility Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Meguro-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Keiji Aoki, “Advanced Smart Mobility”), which aims to contribute to society by researching, developing and commercializing autonomous driving systems for vehicles. As Japan’s society becomes super-aged, there are concerns over an increasing need for countermeasures for emergent issues such as an increase in traffic accidents, a decrease in public transport convenience due to a shortage of drivers, and economic losses caused by deterioration in distribution. Mitsui Fudosan will proceed with introducing a next-generation public transport system in the Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Area by investing in Advanced Smart Mobility, which is promoting social implementation of autonomous driving, and strengthening their alliance. Mitsui Fudosan is also examining introduction of autonomous driving buses in other areas, aiming to resolve social issues through neighborhood creation.

Vehicle used for autonomous driving bus trial operation

■ Towards the building of a business model for autonomous driving from trials to implementation

Advanced Smart Mobility is a University of Tokyo start-up established in June 2014 by a team led by top autonomous driving researcher, Yoshihiro Suda, Professor of the Advanced Mobility Research Center (ITS Center) and Director General of the Mobility Innovation Collaborative Research Organization at the University of Tokyo. The company is enabling the provision of autonomous driving buses fitted with advanced technologies that are the key to autonomous driving with large vehicles, namely positioning technologies (GPS and magnetic markers) and obstacle recognition technologies (LiDAR* and camera images). The buses can travel at a speed of 40 km/h.
Since November 2019, Mitsui Fudosan and Advanced Smart Mobility have been running an autonomous driving bus trial operation in the Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Area. Using this new investment, Advanced Smart Mobility aims to build a new business model for implementing autonomous driving technology. In addition, Mitsui Fudosan will continue to enhance the convenience of the town in the Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Area, where it aims to construct a model for neighborhood creation that solves global issues as part of its smart city concept, by introducing autonomous driving buses that operate on a circuit and increasing the number of bus services.

* LiDAR: Light Detection And Ranging. A system used by aircraft that continuously fires a laser and measures the reflection point in three dimensions stably and with high precision.

■ Trial operation in Kashiwa-no-ha (University of Tokyo Shuttle Bus)

As a member of the Kashiwa ITS Promotion Committee, Mitsui Fudosan is conducting a trial operation of autonomous driving buses in certain parts of the Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Area, running for five months starting in November 2019 through to March 2020. The trial operation uses a bus fitted with an autonomous driving system developed by Advanced Smart Mobility. Based on the results of the trial, road performance and safety of the bus will be evaluated with level 4 autonomy or higher in mind, a new autonomous driving bus will be developed and trial operations will continue with new vehicles introduced following this trial.
Reference release:https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/corporate/news/2019/1024/

■ Mitsui Fudosan’s initiatives towards implementation of MaaS in neighborhood creation

Mitsui Fudosan positions “Innovate business models by harnessing real estate tech” as an important measure under its long-term vision, VISION 2025. In particular, the Company is focusing on Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which will promote seamless access to transportation to make the lives of town residents and workers more comfortable, and aims to incorporate this into its neighborhood creation. In April 2019, Mitsui Fudosan concluded a collaborative agreement with MaaS Global Ltd., which developed the world’s first full-fledged MaaS platform “Whim,” and plans to commence trial operations in Kashiwa-no-ha in 2020.
Reference release:https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/corporate/news/2019/0424/

■ Advanced Smart Mobility Co., Ltd.［WEB］https://www.as-mobi.com/

Advanced Smart Mobility Co., Ltd. is a University of Tokyo start-up established in June 2014 by a team led by Yoshihiro Suda, Professor of the Advanced Mobility Research Center (ITS Center) and Director General of the Mobility Innovation Collaborative Research Organization at the University of Tokyo. The company was founded to return to society the results of research and development work on autonomous driving and platoon driving. The company provides core elemental technologies that can be fitted to various types of vehicle, with activities including commissioned projects for research and development of autonomous driving and platoon driving, and development of core technologies. With its technological excellence, the company has undertaken many commissions for large scale trial project related to autonomous driving by the government and others.

■ Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.［WEB］Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City　https://www.kashiwanoha-smartcity.com/en/

Mitsui Fudosan has been promoting the Kashiwa-no-ha Smart City urban development project in the area around Kashiwa-no-ha Campus Station on the Tsukuba Express line in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture since 2005. Aiming to create an urban development model that resolves worldwide issues, the Company is undertaking various initiatives through partnerships among the public, private and academic sectors, based on the three themes of creating “an Environmental-Symbiotic City,” “a City of Health and Longevity” and “a City of New Industry Creation.” In terms of new industry creation, Mitsui Fudosan aims to realize a city that creates new industries by connecting people of all ages, fields, and nationalities throughout the entire town, as well as companies at various stages, to spark innovation.

* The initiative in this press release is contributing to four of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.