Nissan begins autonomous car testing on public roads

Nissan has begun testing its autonomous cars on Japan’s inner-city roads and highways ahead of offering the self-driving technology on production cars in 2020.

The testing, involving a LEAF-based vehicle, will see the car-maker’s new Piloted Drive hardware -- which offers both semi- and full autonomous driving -- tested in real-world conditions.

To help it cope, the specially adapted eEAF features a new laser scanner that takes 3D measurements to accurately judge the vehicle’s distance from objects. An eight-way camera, meanwhile, offers the system a complete 360-degree view of its surroundings to help judge challenges like intersections.

Nissan says it will begin rolling out its semi-autonomous driving tech to customers next year.

It’s not known which car exactly will feature its Piloted Drive tech, but whatever it is the Nissan will be able to drive itself in heavy traffic on the highway.

Next, in 2018, the Japanese car-maker plans to go one step further, adding lane-change capability before its fully-autonomous cars arrive in 2020.

Last week at the Tokyo motor show, Nissan gave us a glimpse of what its self-drive cars might look. The IDS concept, unveiled at the show, was a pure-electric concept that could provide design cues for the next-generation replacement for the current LEAF.

It is capable of driving autonomously to meet you outside your house, greet you ‘good morning’ and offer full self-driving capability in and out of the city, but Nissan was also keen to point out the driver can take over from the computers at any time, in order to to enjoy a drive themselves.