Japanese Auto Maker Pledges to Offer Vehicles That Can Operate Autonomously
IRVINE, Calif.—Nissan Motor Co. plans to offer cars with self-driving technology by 2020, a senior company executive said on Tuesday.
"Nissan Motor Co. pledges that we will be ready to bring multiple affordable, energy efficient, fully autonomous-driving vehicles to the market by 2020," Executive Vice President Andy Palmer said during a presentation in Southern California.
Japan's Nissan outlined coming technology that lets a car slow to a stop at a red light and even park itself.
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Nissan is one of several major auto makers working to develop cars that can drive themselves. Silicon Valley search giant Google Inc. also is working on autonomous driving technology.
The push to perfect cars that can drive themselves, all the time or part of the time, is aimed in part at reducing the number of accidents caused by driver errors.
Mr. Palmer said Nissan will build by 2014 a proving ground to test its autonomous vehicle systems.
Nissan demonstrated on Tuesday how a prototype self-driving Leaf electric car could use a combination of laser guidance systems, radar sensors and cameras to navigate around a track with various obstacles.
The car could detect a red light and slow to a stop. When a dummy pedestrian jumped in front of the car, it automatically swerved to the left to avoid a collision. When a test driver engaged the turn signal, the car turned right to simulate exiting a freeway.
The Nissan prototypes don't use a rotating device on the roof, as some of Google's prototype self-driving cars do. Instead, Nissan engineers said, their sensors are built into the car.
"Most of the technology solutions are in sight. The challenge is not…the technology," Mr. Palmer said at the presentation Tuesday. "The big step is the regulatory framework."
Beginning in 2020, Mr. Palmer said Nissan plans to roll out autonomous driving technology and make it available across its model lineup within two product generations, or roughly between eight and 10 years thereafter.
Nissan said its engineers have been working on self-driving car technology for years alongside researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon universities and the University of Tokyo.
Nissan will work with hardware suppliers to develop its technology, Mr. Palmer said.
"The question is how deep do they get into the software, which is the critical challenge. Mr. Palmer said the company isn't working with Google on its self-driving car technology, although it does work with Google on other projects. "I can't preclude working with Google," Mr. Palmer said.
Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn was expected to attend Tuesday's session, but members of his staff said an unexpected issue forced him to cancel his appearance. They didn't elaborate.
More vehicles already offer technology that automates certain driving functions. Currently available cruise-control systems can automatically slow and speed up to maintain a set distance behind cars ahead in a lane. Brake systems that automatically stop a car to avoid a collision are available as are systems that can keep a car in a lane.
Among the technical challenges for auto makers seeking to develop fully autonomous driving are developing low cost, reliable sensors that will "see" around a car and guide it along its route.
Nissan's goal of developing a self-driving car for sale by 2020 is consistent with forecasts from technology and other industry executives that the hardware and software could be ready within that time frame.
But the most difficult obstacles to marketing fully self-driving cars could be legal and regulatory.
A few U.S. states have passed laws making it legal to test self-driving cars on public roads, but before high volume sales to consumers can begin, auto makers, regulators and insurers will have to sort out who would be liable if a self-driving car gets in an accident.
A version of this article appeared August 28, 2013, on page B3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Nissan Pledges Self-Driving Cars by 2020.
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