Meet EVENTS team-HITACHI

Hitachi Ltd (Japan) has several corporate subsidiaries established in Europe, including the European Headquarter based in the UK (Hitachi Europe Ltd) since 1982 and its French affiliate, Hitachi Europe SaS. The Corporate R&D of Hitachi is present in Europe with Laboratories distributed in London, Cambridge, Sophia Antipolis (France) and Munich (Germany).

The “Hitachi Europe” Corporate R&D team in UK and in France (“ERD”) currently has several experienced Researchers in the automotive and rail domains, who are focusing their developments on IT components for Smart Mobility (particularly for Highly Automated and Autonomous Driving), on electrification and on digital tools to enable Sustainable transport.

ERD cooperates since 2005 with regional and global Business Units of the Hitachi Group (e.g. with Hitachi Astemo in the automotive domain) and has been innovating in the Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) domain with internal and external public activities (examples being standardization at ETSI and at the Car-2-Car Communication Consortium, and innovations within EU / National funded Projects or Field Operational Tests (FOT) like GeoNet, COVEL, SCORE@F, DRIVE C2X, eCo-FEV, Autonet2030, DENSE, HumanDrive and ServCity).
In terms of Automotive business, Hitachi Astemo is present in many European countries with manufacturing and sales capabilities, particularly in Germany, France, and UK.

Can you provide an overview of your role and involvement in the EVENTS project?

Hitachi Europe and its France and UK R&D teams (ERD), as EVENTS project partners, are focusing on solving technical challenges relating to autonomous driving in complex and dynamic environments, including providing technologies to detect and predict itineraries of other moving objects such as cars, trucks, cyclists and pedestrians, as well as dealing with unstructured and non-standard road conditions. ERD’s role in EVENTS includes also monitoring the technical progress of each Work Package, and leading WP2 and several Tasks in other WPs.

Current contributors from ERD to the EVENTS project are Quan Nguyen (Senior Researcher), Alireza Ahrabian (Researcher), Nikolaus Toulios, Researcher), Anthony Ohazulike (Chief Researcher), Massimiliano Lenardi (Head of the Autonomy and Circularity Lab), Nick Blake (Chief Innovation Strategist & Head of the Digital Mobility Systems Lab).

What are the key challenges in achieving a reliable perception system in complex traffic conditions and how do you address them in EVENTS?

Achieving reliable and robust perception in complex traffic conditions remains one of the biggest hurdles in autonomous driving with many challenges. Real-world environments are highly dynamic objects behave unpredictably, road users interact differently depending on the situation, and changing weather or lighting can significantly degrade sensor performance. Perception systems must go beyond simple object detection; they need to understand context, anticipate behaviours, and give sense to non-standard or rapidly-changing road scenarios. Sensor’s data fusion, robustness to “edge” cases, and real-time adaptability are all essential, but still incredibly difficult to master, especially when reliability is non-negotiable.

Within the EVENTS project, Hitachi is directly addressing some of these challenges through two targeted experiments. The first focuses on highway merging, where perception must handle with high precision high-speed interactions, lane changes, and variegate surrounding vehicle movements. The second experiment tackles roadwork scenarios, where the system is suddenly facing unstructured and non-standard road conditions and must be able to detect and interpret temporary signs, barriers, and lane shifts, often with little prior map information. Both cases demand highly robust context-aware interpretation, real-time adaptability. By testing Hitachi’s perception system in real-world European environments, we ensure the solutions are grounded in practical reality, not just simulation.

The roadworks scenario was demonstrated at EUCAD 2025.

How does the advancement of Autonomous Driving technology impact other mobility sectors?

The advancement of autonomous driving technology in the road transport domain has a significant and positive impact on other mobility modes. Many of the core technologies – such as perception, sensor fusion, AI-based decision-making, and real-time system monitoring – are adaptable to enhance automation, safety and energy saving for all types of vehicles. For example, improved object detection and obstacle avoidance developed for road scenarios can be adapted to increase safety at level crossings or along rail tracks. Similarly, the data processing and edge computing capabilities created for autonomous wheeled vehicles can support the Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) operations, maintenance, and management optimization. There’s also strong potential in multi-modal integration, where insights from autonomous driving help us design smarter connections between road, rail, water and air based transport systems. The more we develop autonomy in one domain, the more it might feed innovation and efficiency across the others. Ultimately, it’s not about a transport mode in isolation – it’s about building a more connected, intelligent, and sustainable mobility ecosystem.

What does the future hold for Autonomous Driving?

The future of “autonomous mobility” is incredibly promising, also thanks to the Horizon Europe framework, where innovation meets real societal needs. We see autonomous vehicles not just as a technical challenge, but as a key to safer, cleaner, and more accessible mobility across Europe. One of the biggest drivers is the push for sustainability – autonomous systems, especially when combined with electric drivetrains and smart infrastructure, can help reduce emissions and make the overall transport of people and goods more efficient. Obviously, safety in autonomous driving remains a top priority, and ongoing Research and Innovation into AI, sensors, and V2X communication is making real progress. What’s exciting is that this technology has the potential to improve mobility for everyone, including people with reduced mobility or those living in remote areas. Of course, there are still many technical and non-technical challenges to solve, such as (cyber)security, AI explainability, cross-border testing, AI ethics, liability, and public trust and acceptance. Horizon Europe plays a crucial role, providing a space where companies, researchers, and policymakers can work together. We believe that human-centric design must guide this journey – people need to understand, trust, and benefit from these systems. It’s not just about removing the driver; it’s about reimagining how we move in a way that aligns with Europe’s values. Hitachi is proud to be part of this transformation, building solutions that are not only smart, but responsible and future-ready.

Anything else you would like to mention or highlight?

Hitachi Europe and Hitachi Astemo want to thank all the EVENTS partners and the European Commission for the good cooperation and achievements.

The above feedback is provided by the HITACHI Europe R&D team. The views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of other HITACHI Group members.