Nissan kicked off its autonomous vehicle testing program for Europe on the streets of east London.
Nissan continues the expansion of its autonomous vehicle program with the launch of the tests of its next generation autonomous drive prototype vehicles in an area of east London.
While the Japanese maker has conducted tests of autonomous drive technology in Japan and the United States, it is the first time the company has demonstrated its latest technology on public roads in Europe.
“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.”
(Nissan Vmotion 2.0 enhances maker’s intelligent mobility efforts. Click Here for the story.)
The London test follows recent announcements that both 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.
Nissan launched the Serena, its first model to be fitted with ProPILOT, last year and went on to earn the 2016-2017 Japan Car of the Year Innovation Award.
Nissan is testing its ProPILOT autonomous vehicle technology on the Leaf EV in London.
Nissan is also planning to introduce the same technology in the U.S. and China in 2018 with added capability that will enable automatic lane changes on highways and is planned for introduction in 2019. It plans to introduce vehicles capable autonomous driving on urban roads and in intersections is planned for launch in 2020.
Nissan executives, starting with chairman Carlos Ghosn, have started the see autonomous vehicles as a way to combat challenges, such as climate change, traffic congestion, road fatalities and increasing air pollution.
(Nissan brings over Qashqai; renames it Rogue Sport. Click Here for details.)
Nissan Intelligent Driving system already contains the building blocks for autonomous driving in Nissan cars with extensive set of advanced safety features including Intelligent Around-View Monitor and Intelligent Lane Intervention
Nissan Intelligent Power also continues to reduce emissions and increase fuel economy by taking a holistic approach to achieving zero-emission mobility by making internal combustion engines more efficient and putting more advanced technologies into our electric vehicles.
Nissan Intelligent Integration keeps customers more connected by conveniently linking Nissan cars to the wider society. Nissan is helping to shape a sustainable ecosystem enabling cars to interact with people, other cars and road infrastructure.
This approach will eventually lead to remote vehicle operation, reduced traffic jams, more efficient car-sharing, and improved energy management, Nissan engineers said.
(Click Here for Ghosn’s plans for updated Leaf.)
Nissan Intelligent Mobility is not about removing humans from the driving experience. Instead, it’s about building a better future for Nissan customers where cars are their partners, and where drivers are more confident and more connected, Ghosn and other Nissan executive have said.