Nissan CEO Outlines Plans for a Future of Self-Driving Electric Cars

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn delivered a keynote speech at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, announcing the brand’s push towards a self-driving, all-electric future.

Five key areas were outlined by Ghosn on how Nissan is working towards its goal, including a new artificial intelligence system, developing self-driving vehicles that can transport people, a new Nissan Leaf with semi-autonomous technology, further partnership with Microsoft and working with cities to help develop infrastructure for self-driving vehicles.

In an effort to speed up the development of self-driving cars, Nissan teamed up with NASA to developed its “Seamless Autonomous Mobility (SAM)” technology. SAM uses artificial intelligence that will learn from a human driver, helping it to make decisions in unpredictable situations. This will help self-driving cars coexist with human controlled cars.

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The Renault-Nissan Alliance along with Japanese internet company DeNA are working to bring driverless vehicles for commercial services to the roads, with plans to launch the project in Japan by 2020.

An all-new Nissan Leaf is another big step for Nissan, with plans to release the car “in the near future.” Thanks to ProPILOT technology, the Leaf will be able to handle fully autonomous driving in single-lane highway situations.

Microsoft is playing a part in Nissan’s technology push, helping the brand to keep its cars connected thanks to the use of its digital assistant Cortana.

Finally, Nissan has teamed up with the 100 Resilient Cities partnership, a global non-profit working towards future cities that are ready to receive self-driving, electric cars.

“We invite others to join us, as well, from tech partners to e-commerce companies, ride-hailing and car-sharing platforms, and social entrepreneurs who can help us to test and develop new vehicles and services, and make sure everyone has access to the latest technologies and services that bring value to their lives,” said Carlos Ghosn.

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