In an announcement at the Frankfurt Auto show a month ago Nissan moved up the timetable on self-driving cars to 2020. This week at CEATEC, Japan’s big electronics show, Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn reiterated the timetable and rode around (quite slowly) in a functioning self-driving car.
The demonstration (seen in the video below) was at low speed on a test area with clearly marked pavement lines and only a few obstructions. The modified Nissan Leaf EV ran at no more than 20 kph (12 mph), controlled by sensors, five cameras, and a smattering of microprocessors. It halted at stop signs, steered around cars partially blocking the roadway, navigated curves, and changed lanes while employing turn signals — marking an improvement on many humans. Of course, there was a human in the driver’s seat, including Nissan’s chairman at one point, though the steering wheel did not need to be touched during the demo.
Nissan’s goal of 2020 at the latest is roughly on par with competitors. At the Frankfurt show, Mercedes-Benz showed a fully autonomous S-Class and also said it has a goal of a self-driving car for sale by 2020 (Read our 2014 Mercedes S-Class review). Self-driving could some sooner: There will be a self-driving Tesla within three years, the company says. Google is working on a self-driving car. Toyota is working on semi-autonomous driving, though the company says it doesn’t currently have plans for a fully-automated car.
Automakers who say they will have self-driving cars by 2020 typically mean the middle of three levels of self-driving, or the highly automated car level. It can drive itself and the driver need not pay rapt attention (“OK 2 TXT”), but he or she has to be in the driver’s seat and ready to take over, ah, just in case.
The partially automated self-driving car is pretty much here now, typified by that 2014 Mercedes-Benz S-Class that can steer around highway obstacles, follow the car in front adaptive cruise, and use a version of lane keep assist that keeps the car centered within the lane. Automakers cobble together a suite of the industry’s best adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, and city safety devices and in sum the car is self-driving especially on limited access roads.
No automaker is quite as close with fully automated driving, where the driver doesn’t have to pay attention and doesn’t even need to be behind the wheel. Theoretically, a child of 10 could be the driver, since the car is in control the entire trip. So could elderly grandparents who gave up driving as they knew it five years ago. Not only have automakers not gotten to this level yet, but neither has government (for permissions) or the public (for trust that it would actually work).
Nissan says it will be back at the Tokyo Motor Show next month to show off its Leaf self-driving concept in even more detail. Meanwhile, at CEATEC, Nissan had to share the spotlight with other technologies such as 8K television from NHK (what, you haven’t gotten used to 4K yet?).