Nissan may soon be the next guest to arrive with its own take on semi- and fully autonomous driving, but the Leaf won’t be the one to carry the torch.
Though Nissan’s Intelligent Driving autonomous concept from this year’s Tokyo Auto Show resembles a future-forward Leaf, and while the automaker is using Leafs to test its form of semi- and fully autonomous driving, Green Car Reports says the first version of Nissan’s Piloted Driving will appear in a luxury model when the rollout begins next year in Japan.
For markets such as China and the United States, an Infiniti may be the first to bring the tech over to each country’s respective shores.
The reasoning for not bringing the tech to the Leaf is the tech’s expense: the low-cost EV is attractive to buyers because of said low cost of admission. Were Piloted Driving to be added, the attraction would disappear, much to Nissan’s chagrin.
Additionally, the automaker wants to make as much money back on the R&D as possible, with consumers in Japan and China more than willing to pay the big bucks to ride the silver future of autonomous driving.
Regarding Piloted Driving 1.0, CEO Carlos Ghosn says the tech is meant for highway use, allowing the car to maintain speed and distance, as well as keep within its chosen lane. PD 2.0 will go head-to-head with Tesla’s Autopilot in 2018, and PD 3.0 — fully autonomous driving and city travel — would be offered in a vehicle sometime after 2020.
Though PD 2.0 could go right now, senior advanced R&D vice president Takeo Asami says it would have to be vetted internally through engineers and lawyers first, then go through an extensive field test to accumulate data prior to being given the green light by the automaker.
Asterisk wheels! I like those, actually. That car could be a decent looking hatchback if they tone it down some. It’s quite wide, for road hugging purposes certainly.
Looks more like asterisk wheel covers. I’ll check the automotive department at Wally World when I go get my Zim’s Crack Creme today.
You’re probably right, there’s a mesh part between the spokes which I didn’t see before.
I’m not opposed to wheel covers, (or alloys which look like a wheel cover) either. Why do I need to see the brakes and other bits which hold the wheels on? That’s not very luxurious now, is it.
http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/da/danschmitt/405466-8.jpg
That looks perfect.
Let’s eavsdrop on a Nissan engineering meeting….
“Welcome fellow engineers. Thank you for attending this emergency meeting. We’re having trouble selling our cars. Anyone have any idea how we can boost sales?”
Raised hand…
“I do. We need to redesign everything. Everything we sell is ugly.”
“Not practical. Too costly and we’re proud of our designs. Anyone else?”
“I know, let’s make them drive themselves. People won’t care what they look like if they can drive themselves.”
“Yes… I see your point. Have you guys seen any of these self-driving cars? There’s no styling whatsoever. Our products will be the most awesome looking thing in that market. Good job. Let’s get to work in it. Meeting adjourned.”
Do not forget that all those autonomous cars from various automakers are waste of money. The day will come when Apple iCar will make all this cars obsolete next day. I would better wait until Apple comes with its iCar and then just copy iCar. Samsung agrees with me. Lesson with wearables tought Samsung hard lesson – never come with new technology before Apple shows the true way.