Yahoo Japan and SoftBank have announced that SB Drive, a company aiming to commercialize smart mobility services by using self-driving technologies, has received a capital increase through a third-party allocation of shares, with Yahoo! Japan making a new investment and SoftBank making an additional investment. Yahoo! Japan invested around JPY 490 million, SoftBank JPY 190 million.
SB Drive was set up in April 2016 as a joint venture between SoftBank and Advanced Smart Mobility, a company researching and developing automated driving technologies. Under a cooperative framework with SoftBank, Advanced Smart Mobility, Yahoo! Japan and others, SB Drive has been conducting social trials and testing the commercial viability of fixed-route bus type community public transportation and large truck convoy-based trunk line freight transportation systems that use self-driving technologies.
SB Drive currently has smart mobility partnership agreements with four municipalities in Japan, including Kitakyushu City and Yazu Town in Tottori Prefecture. In the latter half of fiscal 2018, SB Drive plans to conduct fully autonomous driving trials on public roads.
Yahoo! Japan's investment in SB Drive marks its full-fledged entry into the self-driving sector. By linking self-driving with it regional and transportation services like Yahoo! Maps and by utilizing big data from self-driving and Yahoo! Japan service users, Yahoo! Japan will pursue its “Update Mobility” goal that aims to address the regional and transport issues of customers.
