T2, a startup developing autonomous driving technology for trucks, announced on 21st July that it had secured roughly ¥5bn ($31m) in the first close of its Series B funding round.
The company was founded in 2022 and is headquartered in Tokyo.
Commercial services using level 2 autonomous driving on motorways are already under way
Carbon neutrality and autonomous driving are being pursued in the motor industry worldwide. In Japan, however, where the working population is shrinking as the birth rate falls and the population ages, and where a cap has been placed on overtime worked by truck drivers, hopes rest in particular on autonomous driving in freight transport and public transport.
Against this background, T2 is developing level 4 autonomous driving technology. At level 4, the system takes over the driving task in its entirety, albeit within a limited operating area. In practice, the company sets up hubs near the entrances and exits of motorways and other limited-access roads at which manual and autonomous driving are switched. Trucks run autonomously only on motorways and similar roads, lightening the burden on human drivers; on ordinary roads, by contrast, they are driven by hand.
Technically, the company uses LiDAR, cameras and radar to build a bird’s-eye picture of the space around the vehicle. This serves the all-round perception required by trucks, which have no shortage of blind spots. A visual language model (VLM) further allows the system to cope with irregular conditions such as roadworks.
T2 has already begun working with a considerable number of logistics companies and shippers. In a recent example, it announced on 14th July that it had begun commercial services carrying goods for Kohnan, a home-improvement chain, between the Kanto and Kansai regions using level 2 (partial automation) autonomous driving.
Investors from the logistics industry took part in numbers
The first close of the Series B round drew investors drawn largely from the logistics industry, among them MOL PLUS, the corporate venture capital arm of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, and The Sumitomo Warehouse.
On the use of the proceeds, the company said only that it would “further advance business and technology development towards level 4”.
Masatomo Kumabe, T2’s chief executive, commented: “In order to realise our vision of ‘supporting Japan’s logistics together through the use of autonomous driving technology’, we will work alongside our partner companies to drive our efforts further forward on the twin tracks of business development and technology development.”
