Japan to start discussions on driverless transportation next month

A Japanese government panel will start discussions next month to identify issues that need to be resolved to advance the commercialization of driverless taxi and other unmanned self-driving transportation services, officials said Wednesday. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told officials who met to discuss digital administrative and fiscal reform that efforts should be accelerated to create rules for self-driving cars and put new services for transportation into commercial use. Kishida also called on officials to study ways to address challenges related to proposed ride-sharing services, including taxi industry deregulation.