FEATURE: Japan's shinkansen bullet trains gearing up for automatic driving

Automatically operated shinkansen bullet trains could be right around the bend.Central Japan Railway Co. and East Japan Railway Co. aim to commercialize driverless systems around 2028 for the Tokaido Shinkansen and the mid-2030s for the Joetsu Shinkansen, respectively.But as testing of the systems progresses, the differing goals of the two JR companies have become apparent, reflecting the characteristics of the route and the level of cost-cutting targeted.In the early morning on May 11, a test train on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line equipped with an automatic train operating system, or ATO, de…READ FULL ARTICLE