HORI and Hino Motors Build a Driving School Simulator for Tokyo Game Show 2026
HORI is building this for driving schools and logistics training needs, not for the consumer game market, which makes the Tokyo Game Show booth a hands-on sales pitch to institutions rather than a product launch.
Reporting from 2 sources: Automaton, Game Spark.
HORI announced on September 10 that it has commercialized a full-scale driving school simulator, developed jointly with Hino Motors. It comes in two versions: JAPAN TRUCK DRIVING SIMULATOR for large vehicles and JAPAN DRIVER TRAINING SIMULATOR for passenger cars. Both will be playable at the HORI booth at Tokyo Game Show 2026, which runs from September 17 to 21. Pricing has not been announced.
The simulator reproduces left-hand traffic driving based on Japanese traffic rules, along with the courses used in the skills competition that decides Japan's top professional truck drivers. HORI says the aim is to let drivers practice competition skills without securing a practice location or a vehicle.
Vehicle behavior such as inner-wheel difference and overhang on large vehicles is reproduced. Training tools include a replay function for reviewing drives, an around-view window for checking vehicle behavior, and a ranking function based on accuracy evaluation and time measurement per task. Drivable vehicles range from ordinary passenger cars to medium-duty 4-ton trucks, heavy-duty 10-ton trucks, tractor-trailers, and buses.
Hino Motors provided vehicle data and engine sound sampling for the 3DCG training vehicles. Hanyu Motor School, a designated driving school in Saitama Prefecture, and Tetra Shift Co., Ltd., which develops driving education content for foreigners, supervised the built-in instruction. HORI says the product was planned and developed in response to the expansion of the acceptance of specified skilled foreign workers into the automobile transport industry field.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.