Nissan Says Its First Semi-Autonomous Model Will Arrive in 2017

Nissan’s first semi-autonomous driving-assistance tech will debut in Europe next year on the Qashqai crossover.

Called Piloted Drive 1.0, the system will act as a traffic-jam assist like that found on the Volvo XC90, which means it can operate only at lower speeds in a single highway lane with at least one car in front. It’s part of Nissan’s four-year plan to ramp up autonomous assists on lower-priced models. By 2018, Piloted Drive will include an ability to automatically change lanes and swerve to avoid road hazards. By 2020, it will be able to figure out city intersections without any driver inputs. Nissan is debuting the system at Geneva on a Qashqai concept.

The Qashqai is one of two additional crossovers Nissan plans to sell in the U.S., and while we’re not sure of an exact launch date, we don’t think 2017 would be out of the question given how semi-autonomous assists (and the crossover market itself) are rapidly maturing. What’s out of the question, for the next few decades anyway, is an imaginary connected city where fully autonomous electric cars park and re-park themselves while their owners sleep, all while powering an entire condo and allowing a utopia where everyone gets along in harmony.

In Nissan autonomous driving future, even the office chairs park themselves

We're all for technological advancement, but self-arranging office furniture may well be taking things too far. Let's put that argument to the side and step into Nissan's world to imagine, just for one second, how simple might life be if you could, say, stand up from your desk right now and not even have to worry about pushing in your chair?

Nissan's Intelligent Parking Chair is "inspired by" the company's self-parking technology. Just as some of the its cars can steer themselves into a desired parking spot, so too can its chairs neatly slide into their designated positions at the board room table thanks to sets of powered wheels housed inside a circular base.

The layout of the room is pre-programmed into the system, with each chair assigned a spot at the table. When prompted, which according to the video below seems to involve only a clap of the hands, motion detecting cameras in each corner of the room identify the location of each chair and the software then guides them back to their original position.

While it makes for a quirky promo, there's no talk of actually making such furniture available, and that's probably for the best. Our mothers would be ashamed.

Nissan GT-R Possibly Ready For Crazy Autonomous Driving!

Nissan’s Head of Advanced Product Strategy Richard Candler has given Nissan GT-R fans something to think about as he ruminates on the probabilty of the sports car going off on its own without a driver on the wheel.

That possibility is suggested for the GT-R being put on Nürburgring asphalt and letting it fly around making laps by itself.

Whether or not the car would be equipped with autonomous driving technology to handle actual road traffic was not touched upon. Candler was more interested in it simulating laps done before but without a driver.

But the possibility of Nissan building in autonomous technology can still be grasped as the automaker has made clear its intention to bring in ten autonomous vehicles by 2020. Coupled by the indication some time ago that some performance models in its roster could go autonomous, we don’t see why the GT-R wouldn’t be involved.

Hence it could be more than just winding the spring and letting the sports car loose on its own for Nürburgring, but we’ll see as Nissan could change its mind. At any rate the 2017 Nissan Leaf that is due later this year will be the first of the carmaker’s lineup strutting with autonomous driving tech.

Get ready for the self-driving Nissan GT-R

Nissan has told TopGear.com that autonomous technology will worm its way into performance models like the 370Z and GT-R. That’s right, a self-driving GT-R.

It follows the reveal of Nissan’s IDS concept at the Tokyo Motor Show earlier this week; that autonomous all-electric hatchback that previews the next generation Leaf, but also Nissan’s self-driving tech that’ll hit our roads before the decade is out.

Takao Asami, Nissan’s Global Vice President for Research and Advanced Engineering, confirmed that while performance models ‘will be included within the autonomous driving programme’, the application of this tech ‘could be different to the Leaf’.

“Even the most enthusiastic drivers make mistakes,” Asami said. “Machines are more capable, reliable and better than even the best racing drivers. So thanks to autonomous driving technology we can offer even more driving pleasure out of performance vehicles.”

Asami believes that driving pleasure could be emphasised in next-generation GT-R and 370Zs by handing over control to a pre-programmed autonomous race driver.

For instance, you could flick over to the autonomous mode to enable a digital driver to show you how crap your lines really are around a track. To scare you witless, it could show the true potential of the car by going flat out and nailing the perfect lap while you sit in the driver’s seat – arms folded and Pilotis off the pedals – squirming at its non-human late-braking abilities. Just like Audi’s self-driving RS7. Be afraid.

Before that day arrives however, the current, R35-generation GT-R still has a lot of life left in it, at least according to Shiro Nakamura, Nissan’s chief creative officer. He’s the man in charge of penning the next GT-R.

“The GT-R is seven years old, so people think that it’s at the end of its life,” Nakamura told us. “But performance-wise it’s still one of the fastest cars in the world. And design-wise, it still looks very independent. But we have some major improvements for the current car that you will see next year,” he revealed with a cheeky smile and a heavy lift of the eyebrows.

Nakamura wouldn’t be budged on revealing more, so we’ll just have to wait and see…