Nissan has begun demonstrations of a prototype vehicle equipped with its proprietary autonomous drive technologies, marking significant progress towards its goal of launching autonomous mobility services by fiscal year 2027.
The Nissan LEAF prototype features an advanced array of sensors, including 14 cameras, 10 radars, and 6 LIDAR sensors, enabling it to navigate complex urban environments with enhanced accuracy and safety.
The latest prototype has a roof-mounted sensor array, greatly expanding its detection capabilities and improving recognition performance, behavioral prediction, and judgment functions.
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This allows for smoother operation in various challenging scenarios, such as predicting pedestrian behavior, conducting lane changes, and safely navigating intersections. The demonstrations are taking place around the busy streets of Yokohama, near Nissan’s global headquarters.
Nissan has been exploring business models for future mobility services since fiscal year 2017. While the current demonstrations operate at SAE Level 2 with a safety driver, the company aims to enhance these capabilities and start offering autonomous-drive mobility services in Japan by fiscal year 2027. This initiative involves collaboration with local authorities and transport operators.
In the fourth quarter of this fiscal year, Nissan plans to begin trials in the Minato Mirai area, progressing to service demonstration tests by fiscal year 2025. These trials will gradually increase the level of autonomous driving functionality while assessing customer acceptance, with the ultimate goal of providing driverless services.
The initiative is being conducted in close cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and other central ministries. These ministries will also promote initiatives through the Level 4 Mobility Acceleration Committee to realize new autonomous mobility services.
Nissan’s long-term vision is to address transportation service issues faced by local communities, particularly in Japan, where driver shortages due to an aging population are a growing concern.
By developing autonomous mobility services, Nissan aims to provide a broad range of new services that enable free movement and support the resolution of these challenges.
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