28th August 2013

Nissan plans to sell affordable self-driving cars by 2020

Japanese automaker Nissan has announced that it will provide multiple, commercially-viable autonomous drive vehicles by 2020.

Nissan claims that its engineers have been carrying out intensive research on the technology for years, alongside teams from the world's top universities including MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon and the University of Tokyo.

Work is already underway in Japan to build a dedicated autonomous driving proving ground, to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2014. Featuring real townscapes – masonry not mock-ups – it will be used to push vehicle testing beyond the limits possible on public roads to ensure the technology is safe.

The company says its autonomous driving will be achieved at realistic prices for consumers. The goal is availability across the model range within two vehicle generations.

"Nissan Motor Company's willingness to question conventional thinking and to drive progress – is what sets us apart," said CEO Carlos Ghosn. "In 2007 I pledged that – by 2010 – Nissan would mass market a zero-emission vehicle. Today, the Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric vehicle in history. Now I am committing to be ready to introduce a new ground-breaking technology, Autonomous Drive, by 2020, and we are on track to realise it."

A revolutionary concept like autonomous drive will have implications throughout the design and construction of cars. Collision-avoidance by machines able to react more rapidly and with more complex movements than a human driver will place new demands on the chassis and traction control, for example.

Six million crashes in the US per year cost $160 billion and rank as the leading cause of death for four- to 34-year olds. 93% of accidents are due to human error, typically due to inattention. With autonomous drive, companies like Nissan will have the technology to detect and avoid these life-threatening situations.

In the future, autonomous drive also means less input from the driver. US drivers average 48 minutes per day on the road – hundreds of hours per year that could be used more productively. For the aged, or those with disabilities, there is another benefit: true independence and mobility for all.

Last week, a report from Navigant Research claimed that sales of autonomous vehicles will reach almost 100 million annually by 2035.

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