The transport ministry will launch priority lanes for autonomous vehicles on a roughly 100-kilometer section of the Shin-Tomei Expressway to conduct test runs of self-driving trucks, starting on March 3.
The trial is expected to last about one year.
The move is part of a plan to create a road network that can handle so-called Level 4 autonomous driving, or unmanned driving under certain conditions, amid labor shortages in the logistics industry.
The lanes will run from the Surugawan-Numazu rest area to the Hamamatsu rest area, both in Shizuoka Prefecture. One of the three lanes in both the eastbound and westbound directions of the expressway will be designated priority lanes between 10 p.m. on weekdays and 5 a.m. the following morning.
Ordinary vehicles will be allowed to use the lanes, but the ministry is calling on drivers not to obstruct marked test vehicles.
In the test runs, the ministry will check whether sensors installed along the expressway can provide information necessary to warn vehicles about road debris and assist driving operations where lanes merge.
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