- Technology Demonstration Testing to Begin This Month in Multiple Areas in Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan
TOKYO, Nov 3, 2022 – (JCN Newswire) – Honda R&D Co., Ltd., which takes a lead role in Honda’s technology research and development, today unveiled two “Honda CI Micro-mobility” machines, which utilize Honda CI (Cooperative Intelligence(1)), Honda’s original AI (artificial intelligence) that enables mutual understanding between machines and people.
Honda also introduced core technologies adopted for the Honda CI Micro-mobility machines and announced plans to begin technology demonstration testing using Honda CI Micro-mobility machines in two locations in Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, namely “Mitsukaido Asunaro no Sato” camping and lodging park (testing starts in November 2022) and Agri-science Valley (testing starts in spring 2023).
Honda has been working on the development of CI-powered micro-mobility technologies with the aim to realize a society where each and every person can enjoy the joy and freedom of mobility. To this end, Honda is trying to make the mobility of people and things ubiquitous (whenever, wherever, to any destinations), collision-free and stress-free.
In a society where the birthrate is declining, the population is aging and people have adopted new habits after experiencing the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase has been forecast for the need for unrestricted mobility of people and things using micro-mobility machines. With such an assumption, Honda has established two core technologies:
1) the “map-less cooperative driving technology,” which enables the micro-mobility machine to self-drive while recognizing its surroundings without relying on high-precision maps and
2) the “user intention understanding and communication technology,” which enables the micro-mobility machine to perform human-like communication with dialogues and gestures.
Now, Honda is ready to conduct real-world technology verification through technology demonstration testing of its micro-mobility machines that utilize these core technologies, namely the “CiKoMa” ride-in micro-mobility vehicle and “WaPOCHI” micro-mobility robot, in multiple areas in Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture in Japan.
Further down the road, Honda will continue advancing its CI-powered micro-mobility technologies while expanding the area where the technology demonstration testing will be conducted in Joso City. Honda’s aim is to put these technologies into practical applications by around 2030 and introduce Honda CI Micro-mobility products which will simultaneously realize both the “advancement of mobility and people’s daily lives” and the “realization of zero traffic collisions.”
(1) A type of artificial intelligence that supports the user while cooperating with the user and people around them by communicating with gestures and words.
For more information, visit https://global.honda/newsroom/news/2022/c221102eng.html.
