Daiwa House to lead autonomous truck demonstration at logistics hubs

Daiwa House Industry, Dynamic Map Platform, and Hacobu have been selected by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for a project to demonstrate the acceptance and operation of autonomous trucks at logistics facilities and mobility hubs.

Starting around December 2026, the demonstration will take place at Daiwa House’s ‘DPL’ facilities, specifically DPL Hiratsuka and DPL Shin-Yokohama III in Kanagawa Prefecture. The project aims to address driver shortages and labor regulations by expanding autonomous technology beyond highway trunk transport to the arrival and departure points of the logistics network.

The trials will utilize Level 4 autonomous trucks developed by Tier IV. Key objectives include testing facility-based guidance systems that use high-precision 3D maps and reservation data to lead vehicles to specific truck berths. Additionally, the project will evaluate safety support through infrastructure cameras that detect surrounding vehicles and blind spots, transmitting this data to the trucks.

At mobility hubs, the companies will use Hacobu’s management systems to verify the efficiency of digital operations, including reservation and parking management for tractor-trailer exchanges. The goal is to establish technical and operational requirements for logistics facilities to support a fully automated logistics network.