Yamaha Motor and Tier IV have launched eve autonomy, a joint venture to address labor shortages and growing needs for high-mix, low-volume production.
The Shizuoka Province-based joint venture company will combine Tier IV’s Autoware operating system for autonomous driving, and Yamaha’s vehicle-body development technologies.
Subscription-type services and aftersales support will enable customer factories to respond to demand fluctuations and reduce their initial costs of implementation.
The two companies have jointly developed autonomous transport services on a pilot basis and are trialling services on production lines at Yamaha’s Hamakita Plant in Hamamatsu.
Eve autonomy is taking over the pilot trial from the parent companies to provide autonomous transport services to Yamaha Motor manufacturing plants in Japan and overseas.
Makato Shimamoto, Yamaha Motor director and mobility technology division general manager, said, “eve autonomy will provide an autonomous transportation service for extra-efficient, labor-saving production. By combining Yamaha Motor’s expertise in hardware and reliability with Tier IV’s speed and cutting-edge technologies, I believe we will create unprecedented value.”
Shinpei Kato, founder and CTO of Tier IV, said, “This collaboration between a leading Japanese company like Yamaha Motor and a deep-tech startup like Tier IV will be highly competitive on the global stage. By combining the expertise of our joint team and the capabilities of our Autoware, we aim to revolutionize autonomous transportation services. With the tough times the world is currently facing, we will do our best to provide something positive.”