Format: Written Q&A
Spokesperson: David Moss, Senior Vice President, Region Research & Development, Nissan AMIEO
Purpose: This autonomous driving Q&A has been developed for use and adaptation by markets across the AMIEO region.
Overview:
The automotive landscape is experiencing radical change. Driven by technology, an autonomous driving experience, once considered the work of science fiction, is fast becoming a reality – redefining the way we travel, and helping to create a cleaner, safer and more inclusive society.
Here, David Moss gives his outlook on autonomous driving and explains how it will change the mobility landscape in the years ahead.
Questions and Answers:
1. Why is Nissan involved with autonomous driving?
Autonomous drive technologies are playing a key role in helping us achieve a safer, cleaner and more inclusive society. Nissan aims to allow anyone to travel safely and freely, with the goal of moving towards a zero accident and zero fatality future. But to achieve this, it is crucial to expand our capabilities and expertise with research projects.
We’ve been developing Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS), and making sure these technologies are accessible for everyone, since the 90's. Many of the ADAS technologies we've brought to markets have been world-first introductions – including Lane Keep Assist in 2001 and in 2007, the Around View Monitor with moving object detection. To go further we need to understand the potential of full autonomous drive technology.
2. What do you think are the biggest benefits of autonomous vehicles?
Autonomous vehicles offer so much potential. One of the most important benefits is safety. Autonomous drive technologies, such as driver assist systems and advanced safety features, have the capacity to significantly reduce the number of injuries and fatalities we see on the road today by minimising or eliminating human error – which is responsible for more than 90% of incidents on the road.
Vehicles equipped with autonomous technology also seek to always drive efficiently, in terms of traffic flow, but also in terms of powertrain efficiency. As we move on towards further electrification, we are confident that the technology will participate into diminishing direct CO2 emissions.
We also believe that mobility should be accessible for all. Once vehicles are able to drive without any human intervention at all, we'll be able to provide convenient mobility solutions for people who cannot currently drive, for example due to age or disability.
3. What are the main challenges to introducing fully autonomous vehicles?
Every location is different, so we conduct research across the world. Driving environments change from country to country, and even in some cases, from city to city, for example we don’t find the same roundabouts and cobbled streets of Europe in other regions. In the city, there are many complex situations for the vehicle to deal with – whether that's challenging road layout, or the behaviour of other vehicles and pedestrians.
There are, of course, several other obstacles to the adoption of autonomous drive technologies. We expect conventional vehicles to remain on the roads for decades to come, meaning that automated vehicles will have to share road-space with human drivers for the foreseeable future.
More broadly, I would say we can’t just rely on technology within our vehicles. It requires a holistic view. For autonomous drive vehicles to reach their full potential, automakers, city planners and policymakers must come together and evaluate existing public transport infrastructure, demand and geographic settings to ensure a successful introduction to our roads.
4. How have autonomous drive systems changed in the last 10 years?
Every project has enabled us to learn more about autonomous drive vehicles. Every project bring its challenges, whether it is road conditions or infrastructures. Our teams have worked really hard to enhance the experience for drivers and to help them feel confident when using this technology.
In 2020, Nissan led the HumanDrive project which explored how new technologies could make autonomous vehicle systems feel human-like and natural. This is paramount in order to gain technology acceptance. Completing the Grand Drive – a 230-mile autonomous journey across the UK – was a major achievement and demonstrated the technology’s ability to tackle unique road environments such as complex roundabouts and country lanes with no marking. It requires high levels of accuracy for the vehicle position on the road.
More recently, we’ve completed the ServCity project which was a study into autonomous drive and artificial intelligence systems and their integration into the urban environment. We tested a modified Nissan LEAF on the streets of London, using roadside cameras, sensors, and processing power to enable the city infrastructure to communicate with the vehicle. This project was aimed at making the user experience is as intuitive, inclusive and engaging as possible, ultimately giving users confidence that they can respond quickly and safely and to all types of challenges they face on the roads.
Projects such as these are fundamental in helping us evolve our testing programmes and ultimately our autonomous drive systems. Research conducted as part of these projects is also incredibly important to demonstrate the viability and benefits of this technology to governments and the public.
5. What happened during the ServCity research project?
ServCity is an autonomous research project. We took an advanced autonomous vehicle, coupled with an artificial intelligence, and bring it to a complex urban environment. We tested in London, at the Smart Mobility Living Lab, a real-world connected environment for testing and developing future transport and mobility solutions.
What makes the project really unique is that the vehicle talks to the road. This means we’ve used feed from security cameras located around the test environment and beam information to the vehicle about traffic conditions. The vehicle can actually change lanes automatically to enable smooth traffic flow. Thanks to the city infrastructure, the autonomous vehicle can also detect objects ins that not within line or sight. Imagine a bus stop right behind a corner. Buildings are effectively preventing anyone to see whether a bus waits there or not. The security cameras can detect whether a bus is there or not and feed that information to the car, which can in turn change lane if needed.
6. What role does Nissan play in autonomous driving projects such as ServCity?
Nissan's regional and global R&D networks are all working on advanced autonomous drive programmes and research projects, alongside other consortium partners. In addition to our research projects being led out of the UK, Nissan teams in Silicon Valley and Yokohama have been helping progress the development of new technologies and how these can be equipped to our vehicles.
For the ServCity project, a dedicated team of engineers based in Nissan Technical Centre in Cranfield, UK took a 100% Leaf and adapted that vehicle with advanced sensors, together with some AI technology and autonomous driving software to enable to take on something as complicated as navigating through busy city streets.
7. Why is it important that Nissan is involved in project such as ServCity?
It’s important Nissan is involved in such programmes because they aim to create a blueprint for how autonomous drive vehicles can become an everyday experience. This concept of ‘democratising’ technology by making it accessible to as many people as possible is a fundamental aim of Nissan’s Ambition 2030 roadmap. We believe that autonomous driving technology will contribute positively to the mobility of the future.
8. What does the future of autonomous driving look like for Nissan?
We believe that autonomous drive technology can improve vehicle safety, reduce fatalities and contribute towards a more sustainable future for road transport. We have 25 years of experience in bringing driver-assistance technologies to our customers and we’re capitalising on this.
We aim to have more than 2.5 million ProPILOT assisted vehicles on the road by 2026. Nissan has already made significant progress towards this goal. ProPILOT Assist in AMIEO, and ProPILOT Assist 2.0 in the US and Japan, are some of the most advanced autonomous driving systems available and are currently some of the many technologies we have available to ease the driving experience for our customers. So, autonomous drive technology isn’t just about tomorrow, it’s already here.
Looking further ahead, we are continuously evolving our technology. By 2030, we aim to have our Ground Truth Perception Technology applied to the majority of our new models. This system uses a combination of cameras, radar and next generation lidar to improve the emergency avoidance technology of our vehicles. Ultimately, we are working towards a fully autonomous vehicle.
