Autonomous a2z's ROii bus hits a stone wall on its first public run in Japan's Kinosaki Onsen, and the trial is suspended

The first passenger run of a self-driving bus trial in Kinosaki Onsen, a hot-spring town in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, hit a stone wall around 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 9. The bus, a ROii built by Korea's Autonomous a2z, detected an oncoming large vehicle, moved left to avoid it and touched the roadside wall near the Motoyakushi stop, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports. All eight people aboard were unhurt. Toyooka suspended the service the same day until the cause is found and safety is confirmed.

The bus failed at the condition the trial was built to test. Kanematsu, which leads the project, listed driving safety on the town's narrow streets, where walkers and cars share the road, as the first thing to verify. The route is only about 1.8 km, from Kinosaki Onsen Station to the Kinosaki International Art Center, at under 20 km/h and three runs a day. It ran at Level 2, with an operator aboard. For a2z, which markets ROii as a Level 4 platform, the old town's street width now sets the pace more than the software rating does.

Six partners, one Korean vehicle, a month-long window

Toyooka runs the trial with Kanematsu, local operator Zentan Bus, Sompo Japan, which supplies dedicated autonomous-driving insurance, and KDDI and KDDI Smart Mobility, which monitor the bus remotely, partly from a control center in Tokyo. It is the first time ROii has been used in Japan, Kanematsu says, and Robot Newspaper reports it is a2z's first run on public roads outside Korea. ROii is designed without a driver's seat; for Kinosaki, a2z changed the interior to carry a safety driver, and the 4.9-meter bus takes 11 people including the driver and an attendant. Free weekday service was planned from Nov. 6, the day of the launch ceremony, to Dec. 4. Rides for the public began on Nov. 9.

"We want to make the cause clear and confirm safety before resuming," the city's planning division told the Yomiuri. Robot Newspaper's report on a2z's Japan debut, published in Seoul that afternoon, described its Level 4 platform entering service from Nov. 9 and did not mention the wall.