NTT and an insurer will grade an automated shuttle against telematics fleet data

NTT Mobility and Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance said on September 4 that they would run a joint demonstration in Musashino, Tokyo, from September 2026 to March 2027. The route runs between the city hall and the area around Kichijoji station, and the vehicle is a modified Toyota e-Palette operating at Level 2.

The companies said they would fit the automated vehicle with the insurer’s telematics devices and collect its driving data, then compare that data against the telematics records Aioi Nissay Dowa already holds. The stated aim was to make visible the driving characteristics specific to automated driving, and the latent risks in the traffic environment, that an automated system on its own has difficulty observing or evaluating.

Aioi Nissay Dowa said it held about 2.22 million telematics motor insurance policies, and that it accumulated data on driver behavior linked to accidents along with local near-miss areas and traffic volumes.

The release set the work against Japanese government targets of Level 4 services at more than 100 locations in fiscal 2027 and 10,000 automated vehicles in use by fiscal 2030, and said safety was a precondition for that. NTT Mobility, established in December 2025, said it would extend what it learns to other regions.