Nissan Plans To Sell Self-Driving Cars By 2020

Lucas123 writes "Nissan today said it will begin demonstrating autonomous vehicle technology on its all-electric Leaf this year, and plans to begin selling multiple models of self-driving cars by 2020. Nissan said it's already building an autonomous drive proving ground in Japan. Its goal is availability across the model range within two vehicle generations. The car company, which is among several others and Google in developing autonomous driving tech, is currently working with top universities, including MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Oxford and The University of Tokyo, to develop its self-drive technology."

Comments

You're the problem, not them.

[Valdrax]

All these cars will religiously follow the speed limit, boxing up roads and not permitting those of us who are in a rush to get around them. The road rage will cause accidents, I guarantee that.

Learn to let go, then. The problem isn't the law-abiding the drivers. It's the high strung ones.

I've driven in states where the standard is to speed heavily, and I've driven in states where the standard is to go the speed limit. In my experience, there's a lot less road rage when people are going the speed limit. There's less variation in speed when everyone is following the same standard, which means less people tailgating, less lane changes to pass, and less people cutting each other off.

For me, eliminating the "must get there quicker" mentality sharply decreased my aggression when driving. I am a *much* better driver now than I was when I was younger and treating the highway like a personal race track and getting frustrated when someone got in the way of going the speed I wanted to go. Being forced to go the speed limit taught me to chill and let go of the little irritations that are the seeds of road rage.

So, I say bring on the fleet of law-abiding autonomous vehicles. Maybe it'll teach the rest of you to cool your frigging heads. (And to get off my lawn!)

Re:The main obstacle isn't technological

[Joce640k]

You're dead wrong. There'll be mass adoption as soon as people figure out you get to watch TV or go on Facebook while you're on your way to work,

Any company that has to pay drivers (taxis, buses, trucks, airport shuttles...) will also be straining at the leash waiting for this to happen. As soon as it's approved, all their drivers will be out on their asses. The companies will save so much money on wages, fuel, insurance, etc. that switching to robots will be the only way to stay competitive.

Add in the old people who can't pass the driver's medical and you're looking at a switchover measured in months for a big chunk of the population.

Re: Good

[slim]

Not only is it not theoretical, but it's been tested on public roads.

One initiative that doesn't go the whole way towards fully autonomous vehicles is the road train. A human-driven lead car shuttles back and forth the length of a multi-lane highway. As a driver of a suitably equipped car, you can drive up behind it, press a button, and become part of the convoy. The lead car now controls your car - brakes, steering, acceleration. When you're approaching your destination, press the button again, the controller will adjust the distances between you and the cars in front and behind, allowing you space to resume control and leave the convoy. Then the cars that were behind you will move in to fill your space.

The neat thing about this is that because the cars behind don't need to anticipate the movements of the lead car, they can be *much* closer together. Close enough to benefit from slipstream, which has a significant effect on fuel economy.