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Four years have passed since the automated mechanical transmission was first introduced in city buses, and this system is now making steady inroads into the market. The development of this system was a result of the cooperation between Kinki Nippon Railway Co., Ltd., the largest bus and coach transportation company, and Hino Motors Ltd., the largest truck and bus manufacturer in Japan. First an investigation was conducted of the topography and traffic conditions of the bus routes, then trial runs and refinement of the computer control software was carried out using three chosen routes, and finally the actual performance of the system was tested according to the finalized specifications. This paper introduces the development process, provides a background to the city bus service, and describes the benefits brought by this system and the successful results of this cooperation.

The 1st stage of automated mechanical transmission (AMT) was initiated in 1985 by Hino's development of EE-Drive, featuring a pneumatically-stroke-controlled, oil-sprayed coil spring type clutch.[1] [2]* This system made its way into city buses, thus expanding the market for automatic transmission (AT) in Japan. This paper introduces EE-Drive 2nd stage, to be installed mainly on medium-duty trucks, and featuring a hydraulic-pressure-controlled, oil-sprayed clutch. This system is characterized by smooth starting through controlling the pressure of the clutch disk directly. It also features quick shifting, because it allows gears to be shifted with no clutch stroke, but rather through decreasing the pressure. This will prove competitive with AT with a torque converter (HAT) which will appear in the 1990's as a sophisticated electronically controlled AT (ECT).