Gear up for driverless trucks

Driverless hybrids are the next step in efficiency and safety. Hino has enjoyed nearly 45 years of market leadership in the Japanese domestic light and medium duty truck market.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Toyota Group, its dominant performance at home is expected, however, the results in Australia are not quite as strong.

Nevertheless, the data Hino executives pore over to plan future models and investment is relative to its entire global network.

This week in Japan, Hino’s advanced technology unit boss Keiichi Kitazawa spoke to WestWHEELS about the future vision of Hino trucks on the back of major shifts in Japanese market conditions.

His remarks were made in the light of Hino’s commitment — harmonised with its Toyota parent — of zero traffic-accident casualties, a lofty goal indeed.

Paramount in achieving this goal is moving more tasks from drivers and shifting them across to automated systems, and ultimately to eliminating drivers entirely. Japan has recently entered an era of population decline, which will diminish local consumption and Hino reflects this by recognising its projected Japanese sales of light and medium duty trucks in the near term is set for a decline.

By 2025, though all of its overseas markets are set to grow, the domestic sales picture will shrink from 67,000 in 2017 to 55,000 units in 2025, a decline of 18 per cent, or just over 2 per cent each year.

The reduction in logistics demand is in contrast to the Australian picture, where local manufacturers and importers are planning on steady growth because of a growing population and rapid increase in home deliveries.Tied to this trend is the driver shortage that seems endemic to most First World economies. Driving continues to carry a degree of social stigma, and in Japan the ratio of driving jobs to applicants has grown from 1:1 […]

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