(Nippon Steel: Tokyo) -- Nippon Steel Corp., Japan’s largest and one of the world’s leading steel manufacturers, and TIER IV, the pioneering force behind the world’s first open-source software for autonomous driving, are working together to automate steel transportation with heavy-duty autonomous vehicles. They aim to deploy the technology at the steelmaker’s Nagoya plant in fiscal year 2025.

The companies have been collaborating to tackle challenges linked to labor shortages with autonomous driving technology since fiscal 2023. To optimize logistics and enhance plant safety, Nippon Steel is driving efforts to automate vehicles such as the specialized transporters that carry pallets loaded with steel plates.

TIER IV offers reference designs to streamline the development and deployment of autonomous driving systems. In this collaboration, reference designs for factory logistics are being customized to develop an autonomous driving system for steel transportation.

Nippon Steel and TIER IV are committed to tackling challenges such as labor shortages. They’re pioneering innovations that will revolutionize plant efficiency and safety with autonomous driving technology.