Nissan unveils autonomous blueprint
Nissan has announced new technologies and partnerships it hopes will take it towards its target of zero emissions and zero fatalities.
In his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nissan chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn unveiled the Nissan Intelligent Mobility blueprint, which included five key announcements.
The first was to accelerate the time it will take for autonomous vehicles to get on the road. He announced a breakthrough technology called ‘Seamless Autonomous Mobility’, which is developed from NASA technology and partners in-vehicle artificial intelligence (AI) with human support to help autonomous vehicles make decisions in unpredictable situations and build the knowledge of in-vehicle AI.
Ghosn also revealed that Nissan and Japanese internet company DeNA will begin tests aimed at developing driverless vehicles for commercial services. The first phase of testing will begin this year in designated zones in Japan and by 2020 Nissan and DeNA plan to expand the scope of their tests to include the commercial usage of driverless technology for mobility services in the Tokyo metropolitan area.
Nissan also plans to launch a new LEAF with ProPILOT technology in the near future, enabling autonomous drive functionality for single-lane highway driving, while the Renault-Nissan Alliance will continue its partnership with Microsoft to build the next generation of connected car technologies.
Ghosn has also announced a new partnership with 100 Resilient Cities (100RC) to help them lay the groundwork for autonomous drive, electric vehicles, and new mobility services. Nissan is 100RC’s first automotive platform partner.
Ghosn said, ‘We invite others to join us, as well, from tech partners to e-commerce companies, ride-hailing and car-sharing platforms, and social entrepreneurs who can help us to test and develop new vehicles and services, and make sure everyone has access to the latest technologies and services that bring value to their lives.’
He continued, ‘At Nissan, from the beginning, we work to bring the right technologies for the full spectrum of our vehicles and the most amount of people. This takes more than innovation. It takes ingenuity. And it’s exactly what we deliver through Nissan Intelligent Mobility.’
