Tiny Naganohara aims to beat the world and operate the first self-driving amphibious bus for tourists
Ed Note: Perhaps a new way of commuting? Thanks to Gordon G.
By John Boyd
No longer a rare sight, amphibious buses can now be found making a splash around the globe by providing tourists with a different view of local attractions. Even Naganohara, a small town in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, population 5,600, operates an amphibious tourist bus daily in and alongside the Yanba Dam nine months of the year.
And that’s the problem—the experience is less of a thrill year by year. So the town, an hour’s train journey northwest of Tokyo, hit on the idea of making the amphibious bus self-driving.
A consortium that includes the Japan Amphibious Vehicle Association, Saitama Institute of Technology (SIT), ITbook Holdings, ABIT Corporation, and the town of Naganohara will begin in December what is billed as the first such trials in the world of an autonomous amphibious bus. Supported primarily by the Nippon Foundation, the consortium has secured some 250 million yen ($2.4 million) to fund the project through to March next year, after which, progress will be evaluated, with further funding expected to be made available.
The amphibious bus, the property of the town, comprises a converted truck design combined with a ship’s bottom and carries 40 passengers. It uses the truck’s diesel engine on land and a separate ship engine to travel in the dam at 3.6 knots an hour.
SIT is developing the self-driving technologies for both land and water that are based on the open-source Autoware platform for autonomous cars, and on controllers for modified Joy Cars.
