DX Vision and Hiratsuka City's AI street-tree diagnosis project selected for Kanagawa Prefecture's YAK programme

The proposal "AI street-tree diagnosis to pass on know-how and reach zero tree-fall accidents", submitted jointly by DX Vision Co., Ltd. (head office: Yokohama; Representative Director: Toshiaki) and the Road Management Division of Hiratsuka City, has been selected for Kanagawa Prefecture's municipality-partnership programme "Yell Government x Venture Alliance Kanagawa (YAK)". Kanagawa Prefecture announced the selection on 21 October 2026, and Hiratsuka City published an outline of the pilot the following day, 22 October.

Passing on what one tree's change tells us to the next person in charge

Street-tree inspection means noticing cracks in the trunk or dieback in the branches and deciding which trees a specialist should examine in detail. Hiratsuka City's challenges are that such judgements depend heavily on each inspector's experience, and that checking and recording trees one by one takes time and money.

In this pilot we are developing a system that supports inspections from close-range smartphone photos of street trees. The AI makes a first-pass judgement on signs such as dieback, decay, cracks and fungal growth, and records the result in a per-tree "tree chart". The aim is to hand over the signs found on site to the next person in charge and to route trees that need a closer look to specialist inspection.

The pilot in Hiratsuka and what comes next

With Kanagawa Prefecture's support, DX Vision and Hiratsuka City's Road Management Division plan to build the system, run the field pilot and verify the results by the end of February 2027. The pilot will test whether trees that need detailed inspection can be selected accurately and how far the burden of inspection and record-keeping can be reduced. Building on what we learn in Hiratsuka, we aim for a street-tree inspection system that other municipalities facing the same challenges can use.