Mercedes' parent company Daimler and automotive supplier Bosch announced back in 2017 their plans to get autonomous vehicles on the road "by the beginning of the next decade." Now, the partnership is getting ready to roll out testing, and has earmarked San Jose for a pilot trial in the second half of 2019. Using automated Mercedes Benz S Class vehicles, the trial will see on-demand ride-hailing on offer in the San Carlos/Stevens Creek corridor between downtown and west San Jose. The city -- the third largest in California -- is on track to see a 40 percent population spurt over the next two years, so officials are keen to see how automated vehicle tech will help address growing transportation challenges. "We have to rethink urban transportation," says Dr Stephan Honle, senior vice president of automated driving at Bosch.

A venture firm and a major taxi company began trials of passenger-carrying autonomous taxi services on Monday with an eye on launching the full service around 2020 when Tokyo hosts the Olympics and the Paralympics. ZMP Inc., a Tokyo-based developer of autonomous driving technology, and Hinomaru Kotsu Co., said they are the first in the world to offer autonomous taxi services to fare-paying passengers in the test through Sept. 8. The initiative comes as automakers and other businesses at home and abroad compete in the development of autonomous vehicles. General Motors Co. and Waymo, a spinoff of tech giant Google, have started tests on public roads in the United States, while Nissan Motor Co. and DeNA Co. conducted tests on a ride-hailing service in Yokohama in March. In the passenger trial by ZMP and Hinomaru, a minivan equipped with sensors and other autonomous technologies makes four round trips a day between commercial facilities in Tokyo's Otemachi and Roppongi districts, which are about 5.3 kilometers apart.