London - Arab Today
As part of its commitment to creating a zero-emission, zero-fatality future for mobility, Nissan last week showed to the media its real-world testing of next-generation autonomous-drive prototype vehicles in London.
This is the first time that Nissan has demonstrated its latest autonomous-drive technology on public roads in Europe. Nissan has already conducted public-road testing in Japan and the US to pursue easy-to-use autonomous-drive technology in real-life situations.
Participants in the passenger and rear seats were given the opportunity to experience the technology, which consists of millimeter wave radar, laser scanners, cameras, high-speed computer chips, and a specialized HMI (human machine interface). All of this helps allow the vehicle to operate in an autonomous manner on both the highway and urban roads including runabouts once the destination points are entered into the navigation system.
“Innovation and ingenuity is at the heart of the Nissan brand and its people,” said Takao Asami, senior vice president, research and advanced engineering at Nissan. “This test of Nissan’s forthcoming autonomous drive technology in the demanding conditions of London streets underlines our commitment to delivering Nissan Intelligent Mobility to our customers.”
The London test follows recent announcements that the updated Qashqai and the new Nissan LEAF, both coming in the near future, will be equipped with ProPILOT autonomous drive technology to enable single-lane autonomous driving on motorways. Meanwhile, last year in Japan, Nissan launched the Serena, its first model to be fitted with ProPILOT. In December ProPILOT autonomous drive in the new Nissan Serena won 2016-2017 Japan Car of the Year Innovation Award.
There are also plans for the technology to be introduced in the US and China markets. A multi-lane autonomous driving technology will enable automatic lane changes on highways and is planned for introduction in 2018 while autonomous driving on urban roads and in intersections is planned for launch in 2020.
The world is facing serious challenges such as climate change, traffic congestion, road fatalities and increasing air pollution. Nissan is committed to making transportation safer, with the ultimate goal of achieving zero-emissions and zero-fatalities on the road. Nissan Intelligent Mobility is the roadmap to achieve it.
Source: Arab News