Initiatives that contribute to addressing social issues
Automotive Equipment Group
Message from the Group President
Aiming to Achieve the SDGs through Development of Technologies that Contribute to the Decarbonization of Automobiles and the Creation of a Safe and Secure Society
Atsuhiro Yabu
Executive Officer, Group President,
Automotive Equipment
Energy and environmental issues are borderless social problems for which solutions are essential in order to realize sustainability.
The Automotive Equipment Group is engaged in initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions both by installing its products in vehicles to achieve better fuel efficiency and electrification, and reducing energy consumption during manufacturing processes.
Engines have to be more efficient and electrified as in HEVs and EVs in order to achieve low fuel consumption. Mitsubishi Electric is helping realize this by improving related products, such as ignition systems for the precise control of combustion in high compression ratio engines, turbo actuators that control the boost pressure of downsized turbo charged engines, and various components for controlling these systems, as well as motors and inverters for electric vehicles which improve fuel efficiency of vehicles.
As an example of saving energy during the manufacturing processes, a new production building has introduced LED lighting and cutting-edge energy-saving technologies such as automatic light adjustment and centralized monitoring and optimized control of air-conditioning and ventilation equipment. In addition, we are managing the use of electricity by rigorously enforcing energy-saving measures such as the introduction of photovoltaic generation. These achievements are being implemented at overseas manufacturing bases as part of our global energy-saving efforts.
Furthermore, traffic accidents caused by elderly drivers have been becoming a social issue in recent years in Japan as the population ages. Solving this problem is an urgent task. The Mitsubishi Electric Group aims to realize a high-precision autonomous driving system by combining "self-sensing" driving technologies and "network-based" driving technologies that the Group owns.
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Initiatives that Contribute to Addressing Social Issues
Technological Innovation of Automotive Equipment Products for Autonomous Driving
We are proceeding with the technological innovation of automotive equipment products with the aim of creating an eco-conscious, accident-free, comfortable urban space.
Mitsubishi Electric has developed an autonomous driving system that combines a self-sensing technology that uses peripheral-sensing technologies using millimeter-wave radars and cameras and an infrastructural driving technology that uses high-accuracy 3D mapping in combination with a centimeter-level augmentation service broadcast from quasi-zenith satellites. We have also developed autonomous driving technologies that enable driving on surface roads without high-definition maps and autonomous parking both indoors and outdoors. These technologies have been installed in a xAUTO test vehicle that is being used to conduct testing on highways and surface roads as a step towards the practical introduction of autonomous driving technologies that simultaneously enable high levels of safety and comfort.
Furthermore, we are also engaged in development toward the realization of a future MaaS society by proposing a mobility service that helps resolve social issues (e.g., work environments, the aging society, and needs for safe and secure traffic) that had already surfaced before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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xAUTO car equipped with autonomous driving technologies
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Autonomous delivery robot for multi-purpose
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Examples of removable carts (reference images)
(Left: chemical tray delivery cart for hospitals; right: product delivery cart for commercial facilities)