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RoboTruck Inc. selected for "GENIAC", a National Project
to Strengthen AI Foundation Model Development by METI and NEDO,
for the R&D of Robot Foundation Model Support Project
— Planning to develop World Models and Diffusion Planners for autonomous driving on public roads —

2026.05.14

RoboTruck Inc. (“RoboTruck”) has been selected for the robot foundation model research and development support project under "GENIAC” (Generative AI Accelerator Challenge). This initiative, implemented by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), with the aim of strengthening Japan’s development capabilities in generative AI.

With the support of the project, RoboTruck will conduct model training using large-scale GPU computing resources. We will work on the "Research and Development of Foundation Models for Level 4 Autonomous Trucks using World Models and Diffusion Planners". Our goal is to achieve autonomous driving on trunk routes including surface streets, enabling the introduction of autonomous operations between existing logistic centers.

To date, RoboTruck has demonstrated consistent performance of Level 2 autonomous driving on highways between the Kanto and Chubu regions. These milestones were achieved through participation in key government-led initiatives by METI and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s (MLIT), focused on advancing mobility DX and trunk line transport automation.

As a next step toward the social implementation of autonomous trucks, we will use the project to accelerate the R&D of AI foundation models centered on "Multimodal World Models" and "Diffusion Planners." While the "Multimodal World Model" acts as an internal simulator, predicting future changes in the surrounding environment and vehicle behavior within a latent space, the "Diffusion Planner" utilizes these latent representations of the World Model to generate multi-modal and safe paths.

This technology is expected to understand dynamic interactions through vast amounts of training data and achieve safe driving even in extremely complex Japanese surface street environments dense with pedestrians, bicycles, intersections, and stop signs.

Utilizing existing logistics facilities adjacent to surface streets as hubs for autonomous trucks will bring us significantly closer to social implementation at an early stage and at a reasonable cost.

Message from the CEO

Yusuke Haga, CEO of RoboTruck Inc.

We are deeply grateful for the invaluable support from METI and NEDO, and for their high evaluation of our vision for the social implementation of domestic autonomous trucks and our R&D into Multimodal World Models and Diffusion Planners.

RoboTruck is “a system company” focusing on a single, clear mission: achieving Level 4 autonomous driving technology as rapidly as possible. We provide autonomous systems based on the premise that logistics operators themselves will lead the operations, rather than us undertaking truck manufacturing or logistics operations.

While global competition in autonomous driving technology is intensifying, it is crucial that the technology supporting Japan’s logistics infrastructure—the backbone of our domestic industries—is developed here in Japan. As a domestic startup, our entire team is moving at full speed to contribute to the national goal of deploying 1,000 autonomous trucks, as outlined in the Comprehensive Logistics Policies.

About GENIAC GENIAC (Generative AI Accelerator Challenge) is a project that provides computing resources for the development of foundation models, which are the core technology of generative AI, and supports demonstration surveys for the utilization of data and AI.

Newsroom

RoboTruck Inc. selected for "GENIAC", a National Project to Strengthen AI Foundation Model Development by METI and NEDO, for the R&D of Robot Foundation Model Support Project — Planning to develop World Models and Diffusion Planners for autonomous driving on public roads —

2026.05.14

RoboTruck Inc. selected for "GENIAC", a National Project
to Strengthen AI Foundation Model Development by METI and NEDO,
for the R&D of Robot Foundation Model Support Project
— Planning to develop World Models and Diffusion Planners for autonomous driving on public roads —