What happened
On 20 October 2023 the Kanto District Transport Bureau of Japan's transport ministry made its first Level 4 approvals. One covered a TIER IV shuttle at GLP ALFALINK Sagamihara, a logistics campus in Kanagawa Prefecture. The bureau confirmed that the vehicle's automated operation device met the safety standards of the Road Transport Vehicle Act. It set the driving environment conditions and approved the shuttle as a Level 4 vehicle that needs no driver. The vehicle is a Tajima GSM8 on a loop of about 1.3 km, with a top speed of about 15 km/h. The bureau states that it drives itself on the set route under specific conditions while detecting vehicles and pedestrians. TIER IV operates the shuttle and calls the system AI Pilot. It notes that pedestrians and vehicles share the campus roads. TIER IV staff wrote that the Japan Automobile Research Institute evaluated the system for the approval. The release gives no test results.
Sources
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Regulatory document, by authors with no tie to the system.
Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (Japan), Kanto District Transport Bureau. 関東で初めて自動運転車（レベル４）の認可を行いました (First approvals of Level 4 automated vehicles in Kanto). Press release, 20 October 2023, paragraphs 1 to 3 and the table's GLP ALFALINK Sagamihara column.
この自動運転車（レベル４）は、あらかじめ決められたルート内を周囲の車両や歩行者等を検知しながら、特定の条件下において自動運転することが可能です。
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Press release, by the makers.
TIER IV. TIER IV certified in Level 4 autonomous driving: Sharing its design and process with partners. PR Newswire, Tokyo, 20 October 2023, as republished by TNGlobal (archived copy).
This is the first case for a system that conducts perception, prediction and planning using the AD systems, without any dependence on road infrastructure, to obtain the Level 4 certification in such an environment.
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Other, by the makers.
TIER IV. Navigating the winding road to Level 4 certification at GLP ALFALINK Sagamihara. Interview with TIER IV staff, 9 January 2024.
Once the design, specifications, and evaluation plan get the all-clear, the evaluation is conducted by a third-party organization — in this case, the Japan Automobile Research Institute (JARI).
Details
AI system
- Workflow
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The shuttle finds its own position with sensors and follows a set loop of about 1.3 km. It detects surrounding vehicles and pedestrians while it drives. By TIER IV's account, the Japan Automobile Research Institute evaluated the system before the bureau approved it.
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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The shuttle drives only on the approved loop inside GLP ALFALINK Sagamihara. It drives itself only under the specific conditions of the approval, at up to about 15 km/h.
Entry details
- Sector
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Road vehicle automated driving.
- Purpose
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TIER IV built AI Pilot to drive vehicles on set routes with no driver under specific conditions.
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Cite this record
Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Japan approves AI Pilot for a driverless shuttle at a logistics campus (AIBD-0952). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 1 November 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-0952.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 7.0)