Nissan says it will have its autonomous vehicle ready by 2020

Nissan has told the press that by 2020 it will have several autonomous vehicles on the road. Yes, it won’t be just one but many, no less than one for each segment of its vehicle range. Nissan’s autonomous cars will be offered at “realistic” prices, depending on the brand.

The development of autonomous cars has not been the exclusive domain of Google’s cars or of some universities. It seems Nissan has been studying the subject for years, but it is only now that it has decided to put it into practice. Next year a test centre resembling a city will be ready in Japan, and it will serve to test the electronic systems that will govern the first autonomous prototypes from Nissan.

The first-generation autonomous Nissan cars will in fact give some demonstrations at the Nissan 360 event held in California, where the latest advances in vehicle technology, sustainability and market expansion will be shown. For this, some Nissan Leafs equipped with laser scanners, cameras to view the car’s surroundings and artificial intelligence systems will be used. The first key point defining this new Nissan technology is that everything needed for the car to drive itself must be inside the vehicle and not outside it, so they would integrate everything necessary without depending on cameras or computers placed along the roads.

In collaboration with Nissan on the autonomous car project, no less than 23 universities and technological institutes from Japan, Russia and the USA have joined. In theory, the autonomous car would help reduce road accident figures, and would also be a viable solution for people with disabilities.

Carlos Ghosn has announced that, having successfully achieved one of the goals of his management at the head of Nissan-Renault (the Leaf electric car), the next big goal set for the group is the autonomous car. Given the determination put into developing the Nissan Leaf, there is no doubt that Nissan will have a lot to contribute to its next technological goal.

Source | Nissan