Nissan has announced that it will begin real-world demonstrations of its autonomous driving technology on the streets of London this February.
Passengers, including government officials and technical and safety experts, will be given the opportunity to experience and test the technology in a live environment in a modified Nissan LEAF.
These will be the first demonstrations of Nissan’s autonomous drive technology on public roads in Europe.
The news follows recent announcements that both the refreshed Qashqai and the new LEAF, both coming soon, will be equipped with autonomous drive technology to enable single lane autonomous driving on motorways.
The announcement was made following a visit to the Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE) in Cranfield, Bedfordshire, by the business secretary Greg Clark.
The problem with autonomous cars is that the human minders will have had no training in the operation of these vehicles. Just sitting there for prolonged periods overseeing the operation of these vehicles is a bit like commercial airline pilots and autopilots, the difference being that the Pilots have had extensive training in operating their aircraft. I accept that at least at first glance cars are considerably simpler, only two dimensions effectively, but of course much closer proximity to other cars both autonomous and human controlled. It is hard enough to maintain concentration on long motorway journeys when you are driving, what are the chances of that concentration being maintained, when you are just a machine minder?
On 10 May, at Leicester University (UK), I will give a presentation on the social and legal aspects of autonomous systems:
http://www.dmu.ac.uk/research/research-events/2017/may-2017/driverless-legal-liabilities-social-and-environmental-impacts-fiscal-obligations.aspx
Luciano Butti