Nissan’s Leaf Piloted Drive Concept 1.0 previews the brand’s autonomous vehicle future

By Miles Branman October 24, 2015

nissan-leaf-piloted-drive-1-0 — Nissan Piloted Drive 1.0 Concept Image used with permission by copyright holder

Nissan is ready to join the ranks of automakers testing semiautonomous vehicles with its Leaf Piloted Drive 1.0 Concept.

Based on the first-generation Nissan Leaf EV, the concept gains a slew of sensors and cameras to enable lane changes, merges on and off highways, and passing of vehicles without driver assistance. Nissan claims the Piloted Drive 1.0 Concept previews a fully autonomous production car due in 2020.

Testing of the Piloted Drive system began earlier this week in Japan at Nissan’s Advanced Technology Center is the south of Tokyo. The suite of semiautonomous systems are intended to make “occupants feel as though they were in the hands of a skilled driver.” I suppose that’s an encouragement for those who fear a self-driving vehicle would handle like a newly licensed 16-year-old.

2016_nissan_leaf — 2016 Nissan Leaf EV Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Leaf concept vehicle is equipped with dozens of sensors, 12 cameras, five radar sensors, four laser scanners, and ultrasonic sensors, according to Tetsuya Iijima who is general manager of Nissan’s advanced driver assist systems strategy and engineering division. That’s a whole lot more guidance technology than semiautonomous systems currently being tested on roads like Tesla’s Model S Auto Pilot.

Iijima noted that autonomous driving on the highway will be offered in Japan before the end of 2016. To meet regulations for this testing, the Leaf concept will feature a Manual Drive mode that lets a human driver regain control of the vehicle and operate it like a normal car.

As far as the Piloted Drive 1.0 Concept’s powertrain, expect it to share the internals of the 2016 Leaf, which uses a new 30kW battery pack good for 107 miles of electric driving range. In related news, Nissan will reveal a new concept at the Tokyo Motor Show next month that will showcase the brand’s “future vision of car intelligence and electrification,” most likely meaning it will use a full electric powertrain and semiautonomous driving tech. similar to systems on the Piloted Drive 1.0 Concept.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Miles Branman doesn't need sustenance; he needs cars. While the gearhead gene wasn't strong in his own family, Miles…

Cars

Everything you need to know about autonomous vehicles

Autonomous car levels

Autonomous vehicle technology has seen billions in investment, spectacular advancements, and tragic reminders of how far we still have to go. Not since 3D printing has a technology been so lauded, so predicted to imminently change our everyday lives, and so deeply misunderstood.

Currently there are no companies that are able to offer a fully autonomous ride in any conditions, on any road, with no human overseer. Letting you kick back and watch Rick and Morty while your iCar 6 Plus does the driving is the ultimate goal, but what seems to have escaped most coverage of autonomous vehicles (AV) is how far we are from that ultimate goal.

Cars

Apple buys Drive.ai and shifts its autonomous car plans into high gear

Drive.ai Texas image

Apple opened its war chest to purchase a startup named Drive.ai that specializes in developing the technology needed to power self-driving cars. The acquisition -- which some see as an acqui-hire -- represents the latest turn in the tech giant's rocky road towards releasing autonomous technology.

An Apple representative confirmed the purchase, but the company refused to reveal how much it paid for four-year-old Drive.ai This isn't a merger of equals, though. The San Francisco Chronicle learned Drive.ai had notified California regulators that it planned to shut down by the end of June 2019 and lay off about 90 employees. Apple saved a company that had only a few days left to live. Viewed in that light, the deal might have been too good to pass up.

Cars

Leaf electric-car batteries can outlast vehicles by up to 12 years, Nissan claims

Nissan Leaf

When modern electric cars first hit showrooms in large numbers about a decade ago, one of the biggest questions about them was battery life. But Nissan hopes to finally put those doubts to rest. After reviewing data from its Leaf electric cars, the automaker now believes batteries will outlast the vehicles they're installed in by 10 to 12 years, Francisco Carranza, head of Renault-Nissan Energy Services, said at the recent Automotive News Europe World Congress.

Nissan monitors everything from charging patterns to battery degradation on more than 400,000 Leaf electric cars sold in Europe since 2011 (the first U.S. Leaf was delivered in December 2010), Carranza said. He added that the average life of a car is 10 years, but he estimated the average life of its onboard battery pack at 22 years. Batteries still tend to lose some of their capacity after they age, but it takes a long time for them to lose so much capacity that they become completely useless. Carranza didn't say what the anticipated rate of degradation was.