Japan has almost the best rental services in the world - spotless cars, polite drivers and a culture without tips. With Japan's 2022 Olympic Games approaching, Japan's auto giants are already gearing up to attack the field.
The scale of the Japanese taxi market is 17 billion U.S. dollars, and many new 'invaders' are hoping to take a share in this huge taxi market. However, the future innovators will face some major obstacles: increasingly stringent regulations, for most Users are not enough personalized services, taxi companies and news applications have already entered the office...
According to Bloomberg News, due to Japan's stringent laws and regulations, Uber, the online giant that is considered 'illegal operation', accounts for less than 1% of monthly taxi trips in Japan.
Japan’s third-largest telecommunications softbank company announced earlier this year that it is working with China Didi Travel to jointly develop a joint venture to develop taxi applications for Japan. This new joint venture will be in Osaka this year, Kyoto, Fukuoka , Tokyo and other cities began trial service, using drop technology to forecast and dispatch demand.
'Cross-border Giants' Sony also eagerly participated in this game, working with five taxi companies to use artificial intelligence to build a taxi platform. In the quarter ended March 31, Sony announced profits of up to 63 billion yen in the past year (Approx. US$5.97 billion), and it is also ready to use these profitable investments in the travel sector - using its AI technology to predict taxi demand based on factors such as traffic, weather, time of day and large-scale events.
At the same time, Nissan Motors and mobile game company DeNA has begun testing the Leaf driverless taxi in the streets of Yokohama, intending to challenge Uber’s leadership in the deployment of driverless taxis. On March 5, the EasyRide cars launched by both parties have been A 4.5 km driving test was conducted around its headquarters. These companies stated that by 2020 they will expand their services to a broader market.
Nissan said that the in-vehicle tablet screen will display the selection of nearly 500 recommended attractions and nearby activities. In addition, about 40 coupons for retailers and restaurants in the region can be downloaded by passengers using smart phones.
'We plan to start providing services in the early 1920s, deploy the necessary infrastructure, and really help realize unmanned mobility and bring some new changes to the global market,' Renault Nissan Connected Cars Advanced Vice President Ogi Redzic said last month: 'With the launch of EasyRide, we will bring a lot of value to the Japanese market.'
Automation may also help solve another problem with Tokyo taxis - the average driver age in Japan is 60 years old, and employment of the aging population is a big problem. Also, in Tokyo, many drivers need additional instructions because They are not from the city. If you want to search for a car late at night or in any low-density area like the suburbs, you may have to wait for a long time. Concerns about shared travel plans for autonomous driving will all be solved.
Toyota, a rival of Nissan, is also trying to change the industry. It has announced that it will cooperate with JapanTaxi, Japan's largest car travel application, to develop a networked taxi terminal, a vehicle scheduling support system, and a big data solution for mobility. Toyota Uber is also an investor. Although it is one of the largest car manufacturers in the world today, it hopes to become a more mobile service provider in the future. At the same time, South Korea’s Kakao also stated that it will cooperate with JapanTaxi so that South Korean tourists can use the app's 60,000 taxis.
Steven Bleistein, CEO of Relansa, a Tokyo-based management consultancy, said: “With the acceleration of economic development, the Japanese auto travel market will undoubtedly continue to expand. Moreover, Japan is not lacking in the courage to innovate. , Infrastructure, capital and other advantages will gradually overcome its weaknesses.
