Nissan is the first Japanese manufacturer to dedicate a semi-autonomous driving system to a production car. Thanks to ProPilot technology, a driverless car will debut within four years.
Car manufacturers have yet to achieve fully autonomous driving, but they are taking great strides towards the goal of an eco-friendly car capable of managing itself and interacting with both other vehicles and infrastructure. After the first prototypes, and the inevitable challenges associated with developing a revolutionary technology that requires no driver input, the first intermediate solutions are now reaching the market — that is, systems that partially manage the vehicle, with the driver remaining alert and required to intervene only in critical situations.
Following American and German manufacturers, who lead the field, Japan too has now entered the world of semi-autonomous driving thanks to Nissan's ProPilot system, which makes its debut on the Japanese market at the end of August paired with the Serena MPV in hybrid configuration. The first step by the Yokohama-based manufacturer on the advanced driver assistance front, ProPilot is designed for motorway driving or stop-and-go traffic within a single lane, and is capable of autonomously managing the steering — including on bends — the accelerator and the brakes, maintaining a safe distance from the vehicle ahead and, as a result, reducing driver fatigue on long journeys.
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ProPilot is based on the interaction between a front-facing camera, a cruise control system — responsible for maintaining the cruising speed selected by the driver — and image-processing software, so that the car "reads" the position of other vehicles and road markings in three dimensions, keeping to the centre of the lane and managing distances. The system, which can be activated via a switch on the steering wheel, is operational up to 100 km/h and capable of bringing the vehicle to a complete stop when necessary. Driver intervention is required to resume moving. As with Autopilot technology from American manufacturer Tesla, the driver must always keep their hands on the steering wheel; if they do not, a warning is issued and the semi-autonomous driving is subsequently deactivated — which, in any case, does not function in the absence of road markings.
Developed for Japanese traffic conditions, ProPilot will progressively be adapted for European roads. Set to go through three evolutionary steps, in 2017 it will debut on board the new Qashqai crossover — the best-selling car in its category in Italy — in 2018 it will gain automatic lane changing on motorways, meaning the ability to travel across multiple lanes and trajectories, including overtaking, and in 2020 it will benefit from autonomous junction management, designed for urban driving. The driverless car, in the plans of the Nissan/Renault industrial alliance, will become a reality within four years, and at least ten new models equipped with this technology will be launched on the market. An epoch-making step forward for road safety, given that the advent of autonomous driving will bring about a significant reduction in road accidents, particularly fatal ones.