What’s ahead for Nissan Intelligent Driving: Driverless testing for commercial services
On stage at CES, Mr. Ghosn announced that Nissan, in partnership with the leading Japanese internet company DeNA, will begin tests this year to target the development of driverless vehicles for commercial uses. This first phase of testing will be held in several designated zones throughout Japan.
By 2020, Nissan and DeNA will expand the scope to begin testing not just the driverless technology but the potential usage of this technology for mobility services that driverless vehicles could one day provide. It is expected more than 100 vehicles will be on the roads in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Nissan will leverage its car making expertise and advanced autonomous drive knowledge to build and provide the prototype vehicles, which will also be electric. DeNA will, in turn, provide its expertise in creating online and mobile user experiences to build and lead the information technology systems to provide a mobility service platform.
This is the first-time Nissan has announced plans to develop a driverless vehicle. Now, Nissan has tests targeted at all levels of autonomous drive in the United States, Europe, China and Japan.
Nissan’s strategy to make driverless vehicles a reality is based on four stages. Stage 1 is autonomous drive for single-lanes on the highway, which was introduced last August through ProPILOT technology on the Nissan Serena family minivan in Japan. When activated, it keeps the car centered by reading lane markers, measuring the distance between your car and the vehicle in front of you, and controlling the steering. 60 percent of customers who have purchased this model have already chosen this option in Japan. Nissan will be bringing this technology to other models, including the Qashqai in Europe in FY2017.
Stage two is autonomous drive on multilane highways. This will enable the car to change lanes autonomously and it will be available by 2018. Stage three is autonomous city driving, which Nissan expects to be available by 2020. The fourth and final stage is completely autonomous vehicles.
