Are You a Fan of Autonomous Driving: Nissan to Have Self-Driving Cars Ready by 2020
August 28th, 2013 by Road Test TV
At Road Test TV, we absolutely love cars and obsessively love driving. It’s a bit scary when we here companies like Google working on cars that will drive by themselves. Well, Nissan today confirmed that it will be ready with “revolutionary commercially-viable Autonomous Drive in multiple vehicles by the year 2020.”
Nissan says that its engineers have already been carrying out research on the technology for years and that work is already underway in Japan to build a dedicated autonomous driving proving ground to be completed by 2014.
“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 realize it.”
Nissan is using an extension of its Safety Shield system, which monitors a 360-degree view around a vehicle for risks, offers warnings to the driver and takes action if necessary.
Now hybrids are already awkward looking vehicles and Nissan says that a concept like autonomous drive will have implications throughout the design and construction of cars. We’re hoping we’ll see some good-looking cars.
On the flip side of the argument against autonomous driving, Nissan reminds us that 6 million crashes in the US per year cost $160 billion and rank as the top reason of death for four- to 34-year olds. It also reminds us that 93% of accidents in the US are due to human error.
What are your thoughts?