Fukui Prefecture records nation's first Level 4 accident

The nation's first vehicle accident involving so-called Level 4 autonomous driving occurred in October due to a failure to visually recognize an object, a local government report said. The report was released recently by the town of Eiheiji, Fukui Prefecture, where Level 4 driving, or fully automated driving under certain conditions, received approval, the first local government to do so in the country. The town government plans to improve Level 4 vehicles' visual recognition performance to prevent any similar accidents. In the accident in the town on Oct. 29, the autonomous vehicle, traveling at about 4 kilometers per hour, hit a pedal of a parked bicycle. The vehicle detected the crash and made an emergency stop.