TIER IV and Taisei to test autonomous vehicles for Japan's Autoflow Road

Oct 14, 2026
TIER IV, Taisei Corporation, and Taisei Rotec will test three autonomous vehicles in dedicated logistics lanes for Japan's Autoflow Road project. The eight day trial will evaluate maneuvers including merging, obstacle avoidance, and bidirectional driving.

Taisei Corporation, TIER IV, and Taisei Rotec will test autonomous vehicles for the Autoflow Road project run by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, TIER IV said in a press release.

The eight day trial will take place from late October to early November 2026 at a full scale tunnel facility and test track. Three experimental vehicles will perform following, stopping, bidirectional driving, merging, diverging, obstacle avoidance, and precise berth stops across straight and curved sections.

TIER IV will provide the vehicles and its Pilot.Auto autonomous driving system, which is based on the open source Autoware software. Taisei Corporation will test its T-Localizer positioning support technology and assess whether vehicle sensors and roadside infrastructure can be simplified. Taisei Rotec will install reflectors and provide field support.

The passenger car based test vehicles do not represent the transport hardware planned for the final Autoflow Road system. The project will also measure the required lane widths for autonomous cargo operations in dedicated spaces.

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