Japan's biggest stock market debut this year doesn't come from some flashy AI startup, but from a company founded back in 1977 as an ordinary taxi operator. Go, Japan's largest ride-hailing app, raised 88.6 billion yen (553 million dollars) on the market - and immediately announced what it would spend it on: robotaxis and acquisitions.

The numbers behind Go are serious. 35 million downloads, 85,000 partner vehicles, 80 percent of the Japanese taxi-app market and coverage in 46 out of 47 prefectures. This isn't a startup with a pitch deck and a dream, but a company that already owns the market. Still, the stock closed its first day around 4 percent below its opening price - investors are applauding, but carefully.

Behind the autonomous-vehicle plan stands a hard problem, not marketing. Japan doesn't have enough drivers - the number of taxi drivers has fallen by around 20 percent, the population is ageing, and that trend will be hard to reverse. For Go, the robotaxi isn't a toy of the future, but an answer to a gap that already exists. The company is working with Waymo, Alphabet's subsidiary, and promises to drive fully autonomously, with no human in the vehicle, only after it has validated the technology and secured a permit.

Among the investors are heavyweight names - BlackRock, Wellington and M&G. That's a sign big money believes the future of transport in ageing societies is automated. The Balkans still have a different problem - here it's not drivers we lack but roads worth driving on. But the logic is universal: where people run out, machines come to fill the gap. The only question is who will control that machine once it becomes irreplaceable.