While presenting at the 2015 Tokyo Auto Show, automaker Nissan unveiled a revolutionary new self-driving car that’s equipped with the company’s signature human machine interface (HMI). Although this in the early stages of development, the prototype has been demonstrated to drive on highway, city and urban roads. To learn more about Nissan’s new self-driving car and what’s next for the prototype, keep reading.
Dubbed “Nissan Intelligent Driving,” Nissan’s self-driving car is said to enhance the driver’s ability to see, hear, think and react. While other companies like Telsa and even Google have been developing their own self-driving cars for years now, Nissan’s takes a different approach: it is designed to “compensate” for driver error, which the company claims is responsible for more than 90% of all automobile accidents. Of course, this makes sense if you look at automobile accident trends, as the vast majority are caused by human error and not mechanical error.
The Nissan Intelligent Driving car will come equipped with several different driving modes, including the Piloted Drive mode, which operates using the driver’s preferred style, as well as the Manual Drive mode, which turns the vehicle back into a normal car by disabling the self-driving feature. With that said, Nissan notes that even when the vehicle is in Manual Drive mode it will continue to assist the driver by monitoring the surroundings for other automobiles and hazards, and it will take evasive measures to avoid collision when necessary. The Nissan Intelligent Driving car will even speak and communicate with the driver.
According to a press release by the automaker, Nissan will launch Piloted Drive 1.0 next year, which is essentially the first phase of rolling out its self-driving, HMI-equipped cars. Just two years afterwards, Nissan hopes to develop a special multi-lane road on which these cars can operate.
“Nissan’s forthcoming technologies will revolutionize the relationship between car and driver, and future mobility,” said Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn. “Nissan Intelligent Driving improves a driver’s ability to see, think and react. It compensates for human error, which causes more than 90 percent of all car accidents. As a result, time spent behind the wheel is safer, cleaner, more efficient and more fun.”
Nissan’s self-driving car also features a Human Machine Interface that combines all of the technology into a central hub. Included in the HMI is a meter cluster, heads up display, central cluster and drive commander.
