New Nissan Serena will debut company’s self-driving tech
With its North American product offering skipping over the Serena, Nissan doesn’t come to mind when going minivan shopping. However the inclusion of the company’s new autonomous driving technology might have minivan drivers considering giving the company a chance if they decide to offer a North American model.
Before fans of Tesla’s Autopilot get too excited, however, it’s important to note that Nissan’s tech isn’t quite as advanced. The tech, dubbed ProPILOT, is currently only designed for single-lane highway traffic, letting the car control its steering, acceleration, and braking in order to not only maintain speeds and safe distances on highways, but keep the car centered in the lane. While it will follow curves in a road, It cannot navigate city streets or intersections. It does however include parking assist
According to Autofocus, the system uses a camera along with advanced image processing software to see lane markers and vehicles ahead. At the flick of a switch, the car will maintain a speed set by the driver between 30 and 100 km/h. Should a full stop become necessary, the car will automatically apply brakes and remain stopped until the driver either activates the system again with the switch or by lightly pressing the accelerator.
Nissan’s somewhat stripped down offering of self-driving features is likely an attempt to avoid any negative incidents like the ones that have recently plagued Tesla. With autonomous technology still a ways off from being perfected Nissan has decided to focus on bringing the safest and most convenient self-driving features to more common. The only other promise of such capability is the forthcoming Tesla Model 3, which is currently slated for release by the end of next year with more widespread delivery throughout 2018.
By 2018 Nissan says that its ProPILOT system will be capable of multi-lane highway traffic operation with automatic lane changes followed by full autonomy on urban roads with intersections by 2020.