he concurrent show with NEPCON Japan, AUTOMOTIVE WORLD, consists of six specialized shows including CAR-ELE JAPAN, EV JAPAN, Automotive Lightweight Technology Expo, Connected Car Japan, and CAR-MECHA Japan, making it the world largest exhibition for advanced automotive technologies.

Autonomous driving technology and related industry is beyond doubt the most attractive topic at the show. The exhibition invited several industry leaders to share the current trend and technology progress of self-driving technology. The keynote speech given by DENSO, BOSCH and Continental focusing on autonomous car and application attracted more than 2,200 people, breaking the record of attendee number for one conference.

LiDAR sensor, as a critical component in autonomous driving, was also a major topic at the show with various manufacturers participating. Leading companies including Velodyne Lidar, aEye, Innoviz, Luminar, Leddartech, and Cepton Technology all set up their booths this year.

Masaki Soda, show director of AUTOMOTIVE WORLD, indicated three highlights of the show. Firstly, exhibiters specialized in connected car, electric car and automotive driving have increased and a wider range of technologies and applications were presented. Second is that during the event, 16 startups from 10 different countries were invited to share their technologies related to CASE, standing for Connected, Autonomous/Automated, Shared and Electric. Finally, the show has hosted a series of conference about MaaS, Mobility as a Service, each of them drew more than 1000 attendees.

(Masaki Soda, show director of AUTOMOTIVE WORLD; image: Reed Exhibition/AUTOMOTIVE WORLD)

Following the mutuality of 5G technology, Soda considered that the integration of MaaS and 5G will be the core of development while many Japan companies are modifying their business model from selling cars into selling services. Furthermore, services provided by autonomous vehicles are regarded as solutions to tackle issues in Japan’s aging society.

Soda also addressed that MaaS technology will have various approaches according to different needs in different societies. At the conferences hosted by AUTOMOTIVE WORLD, industry experts from Japan, US, and China all shared the development directions and models of MaaS in their own countries. A new show, MaaS EXPO, will also be included in AUTOMOTIVE WORLD in 2021, marking the continuous innovation of the event host. Reed Exhibition always listens to the feedbacks in the industry and include the on-going trends all over the world in the shows.