Japan's First Autonomous Truck Completes 500km Highway Main Line Journey Between Kanto and Kansai
T2 successfully completed Japan's first 500km autonomous truck highway main line journey, developing new technologies for lane changes during road construction and other situations, marking a further step towards Level 4.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: March 31, 2026 at 22:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 1, 2026 at 13:39 (15h 39m after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 17, 2026 at 02:33 (372h 54m after Collected)
T2 Co., Ltd. (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Masatomo Kumabe; hereinafter "T2") successfully completed a 500km highway main line journey between Kanto and Kansai in March 2026, using its self-developed Level 2*¹ autonomous driving truck, without any temporary manual steering intervention by the driver, maintaining autonomous operation throughout the entire trip*².
This marks the first time in Japan*³ that an autonomous driving truck has completed a long-distance main line journey of approximately 500km. Building on this achievement, T2 will further advance its technological development to respond to all situations, including irregular circumstances, in anticipation of actual operations, aiming to realize Level 4*⁴ autonomous driving truck trunk line transport services.
T2 aims to achieve Level 4 autonomous driving truck trunk line transport services in fiscal year 2027. Towards this goal, in June 2025, T2 successfully completed a journey of approximately 500km, the longest distance in Japan, from Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture, to Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, with a Level 2 autonomous driving truck*⁵.
However, when encountering irregular and sudden situations during driving, such as road construction or vehicles merging ahead, there have been instances where autonomous driving had to be temporarily stopped for safety, forcing the driver to switch to manual steering. This has been a major challenge in achieving Level 4.
This time, T2 developed new technologies to enable continuous autonomous driving even in such situations. Specifically, these include: ▼ rapidly recognizing road construction signs and pylons on the road with in-vehicle sensors when a lane is suddenly closed due to construction, estimating the closed lane, and changing lanes at an appropriate timing in advance; ▼ reliably recognizing speed limit signs with sensors in situations where the maximum speed is temporarily restricted due to road construction, enabling smooth acceleration and deceleration. Furthermore, T2 incorporated a function to ▼ decelerate and yield to vehicles merging suddenly at ICs and JCTs, and ▼ enhanced the performance to follow lanes even on inclined road surfaces.
With the Level 2 autonomous driving truck equipped with these newly developed technologies, a demonstration run was conducted in early March 2026, covering approximately 500km of the main line connecting Tomei Expressway Ayase Smart Interchange (Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture) and Sanyo Expressway Kobe Nishi Interchange (Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture). The truck successfully completed the journey without any temporary manual steering intervention by the driver, maintaining autonomous operation throughout.
Near the Ayase Smart IC and Kobe Nishi IC mentioned above, T2 plans to complete "switchover points"*⁶ this spring, where drivers will get on and off trucks to switch between autonomous driving on highways and manned driving on general roads, with an eye towards Level 4. Moving forward, T2 will expand the autonomous driving section beyond the main line to enable: ▼ passing through toll gates, which are considered difficult due to their narrow width, and ▼ driving on general roads connecting toll gates and switchover points.
Yuki Tsuji, Head of Technology Development at T2, commented, "This main line completion is a very significant achievement that clearly demonstrates our company's progress in steadily accumulating essential technological developments for actual Level 4 operations. In particular, the ability to continue autonomous driving even in everyday situations such as lane changes due to road construction, speed limit responses, yielding to merging vehicles, and stable driving on inclined roads, holds extremely great significance. I am confident that our technology is moving step by step beyond 'research and development' into the 'practical application with social implementation in mind' phase. Going forward, we will accelerate our efforts towards realizing Level 4 by advancing development for the automation of the entire operation, including main line driving, toll gate passage, and general road driving to switchover points."
*¹ High-level automated driving under specific conditions with driver supervision.
*² Excludes entering and driving in service areas and parking areas required for driver breaks based on revised standard notifications.
*³ According to T2 (as of March 2026). As an example of a Level 2 autonomous driving truck completing approximately 500km of highway main line.
*⁴ A state where the automated driving system performs all driving operations within a limited operational design domain that meets specific driving environment conditions.
*⁵ Release regarding this matter: https://t2.auto/news/2025/0613.pdf
*⁶ Releases regarding this matter: https://t2.auto/news/2025/1030_c.pdf (Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture) https://t2.auto/news/2025/1210_b.pdf (Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture)
Company Profile
Head Office Location: Hibiya Kokusai Building 1F, 2-2-3 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Masatomo Kumabe, Representative Director and CEO
Establishment Date: August 30, 2022
Business Activities: Development of autonomous driving systems, trunk line transport services using Level 4 autonomous driving trucks, related services incidental to trunk line transport, and other related services.
Corporate Website: https://t2.auto/
Official X: https://x.com/t2_auto
This marks the first time in Japan*³ that an autonomous driving truck has completed a long-distance main line journey of approximately 500km. Building on this achievement, T2 will further advance its technological development to respond to all situations, including irregular circumstances, in anticipation of actual operations, aiming to realize Level 4*⁴ autonomous driving truck trunk line transport services.
T2 aims to achieve Level 4 autonomous driving truck trunk line transport services in fiscal year 2027. Towards this goal, in June 2025, T2 successfully completed a journey of approximately 500km, the longest distance in Japan, from Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture, to Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, with a Level 2 autonomous driving truck*⁵.
However, when encountering irregular and sudden situations during driving, such as road construction or vehicles merging ahead, there have been instances where autonomous driving had to be temporarily stopped for safety, forcing the driver to switch to manual steering. This has been a major challenge in achieving Level 4.
This time, T2 developed new technologies to enable continuous autonomous driving even in such situations. Specifically, these include: ▼ rapidly recognizing road construction signs and pylons on the road with in-vehicle sensors when a lane is suddenly closed due to construction, estimating the closed lane, and changing lanes at an appropriate timing in advance; ▼ reliably recognizing speed limit signs with sensors in situations where the maximum speed is temporarily restricted due to road construction, enabling smooth acceleration and deceleration. Furthermore, T2 incorporated a function to ▼ decelerate and yield to vehicles merging suddenly at ICs and JCTs, and ▼ enhanced the performance to follow lanes even on inclined road surfaces.
With the Level 2 autonomous driving truck equipped with these newly developed technologies, a demonstration run was conducted in early March 2026, covering approximately 500km of the main line connecting Tomei Expressway Ayase Smart Interchange (Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture) and Sanyo Expressway Kobe Nishi Interchange (Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture). The truck successfully completed the journey without any temporary manual steering intervention by the driver, maintaining autonomous operation throughout.
Near the Ayase Smart IC and Kobe Nishi IC mentioned above, T2 plans to complete "switchover points"*⁶ this spring, where drivers will get on and off trucks to switch between autonomous driving on highways and manned driving on general roads, with an eye towards Level 4. Moving forward, T2 will expand the autonomous driving section beyond the main line to enable: ▼ passing through toll gates, which are considered difficult due to their narrow width, and ▼ driving on general roads connecting toll gates and switchover points.
Yuki Tsuji, Head of Technology Development at T2, commented, "This main line completion is a very significant achievement that clearly demonstrates our company's progress in steadily accumulating essential technological developments for actual Level 4 operations. In particular, the ability to continue autonomous driving even in everyday situations such as lane changes due to road construction, speed limit responses, yielding to merging vehicles, and stable driving on inclined roads, holds extremely great significance. I am confident that our technology is moving step by step beyond 'research and development' into the 'practical application with social implementation in mind' phase. Going forward, we will accelerate our efforts towards realizing Level 4 by advancing development for the automation of the entire operation, including main line driving, toll gate passage, and general road driving to switchover points."
*¹ High-level automated driving under specific conditions with driver supervision.
*² Excludes entering and driving in service areas and parking areas required for driver breaks based on revised standard notifications.
*³ According to T2 (as of March 2026). As an example of a Level 2 autonomous driving truck completing approximately 500km of highway main line.
*⁴ A state where the automated driving system performs all driving operations within a limited operational design domain that meets specific driving environment conditions.
*⁵ Release regarding this matter: https://t2.auto/news/2025/0613.pdf
*⁶ Releases regarding this matter: https://t2.auto/news/2025/1030_c.pdf (Ayase City, Kanagawa Prefecture) https://t2.auto/news/2025/1210_b.pdf (Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture)
Company Profile
Head Office Location: Hibiya Kokusai Building 1F, 2-2-3 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Masatomo Kumabe, Representative Director and CEO
Establishment Date: August 30, 2022
Business Activities: Development of autonomous driving systems, trunk line transport services using Level 4 autonomous driving trucks, related services incidental to trunk line transport, and other related services.
Corporate Website: https://t2.auto/
Official X: https://x.com/t2_auto
FAQ
What did T2 achieve with this announcement?
T2 successfully completed Japan's first 500km highway main line journey with an autonomous truck without any driver intervention.
What new technologies were developed?
New technologies include lane changes for road construction, speed limit response, yielding to merging vehicles, and stable driving on inclined roads.
What is the next step towards achieving Level 4?
T2 plans to develop technologies for the full automation of operations, including toll gate passage and general road driving to switchover points.