TOKYO — Remember Jonny Cab? The sarcastic, self-driving robo-taxi from Total Recall always had a bon mot to suit the occasion: “The door opened, you got in – hell of a day, isn’t it?”
By comparison, this complicated prototype Nissan Leaf is relatively mute. It has more eyes than an arachnid, more computing power than a mission to Mars, a trunk-full of pretty suspect-looking circuitry and our lives in its hands.
We hit the mean streets of Tokyo in heavy traffic. In the driver’s seat, chief engineer Tetsuya Iijima takes his hands off the steering wheel. Silently, the Leaf takes over, following its own path and slowing for stoplights. There is zero human input as the Leaf signals, changes lanes and navigates through traffic: the self-driving car has arrived. Hell of a day, isn’t it?
The prototype self-driving Nissan Leaf hits the streets of Tokyo.
Handout, Nissan
But let’s just calm down a little. This friendly-faced autonomous Leaf is pretty far from ready for prime-time. Pop the rear hatch and the entire cargo space is filled with racking, sensors and junctions. There’s a second engineer in the rear seat, hovering over a computer. There’s another van full of engineers trailing behind us at a reasonable pace, presumably in case the Leaf goes full Skynet and tries to wipe out one of the boxy little kei trucks that throng the streets of the Japanese capital.
Prototype though it may be, however, the autopiloted Leaf shows little bad behaviour. It follows a path laid out through GPS faithfully, even when it has to duck into a tunnel and loses the satellite. Acceleration is smooth and quiet, it doesn’t speed and it follows at a safe distance. It’s a bit like having your own Downton Abbey chauffeur, without the fear that the cheeky reprobate might take up and run off with your daughter.
Keeping the autonomously driven Leaf on the straight and narrow requires a plethora of sensors. Festooning the car with electronic eyes arranged in a 360-degree pattern turns Nissan‘s EV into a veritable Argus, capable of keeping track of multiple vehicles in all directions.
The trunk on this prototype autonomous Nissan Leaf is full of all manner of wires, sensors and gizmos. Needless to say, this self-driving Leaf is still a long way from prime time.
Handout, Nissan
Added to computer-visual tracking are several radar-guided systems and a unique scanning and tracking laser. This last is used to keep track of positional data, and combined with the radar systems can read vehicles outside of visual range.
There’s also been effort made to improve the human-interface portion of the car, with many driving functions controlled by a dial between the seats. This can initiate a car-directed lane-change by tapping right or left, and handles speed functions. Left to its own devices, the car will not travel faster than the legal speed limit, and is capable of reading road signs.
The instrument panel has three different displays dependent on vehicle speed, with a forward camera view replaced by a bird’s-eye view that tracks surrounding vehicles as speed increases. The idea is to improve the sense that the car is doing its job keeping track of traffic and the road.
Autonomous Nissan Leaf
Handout, Nissan
Still, Iijima admits that there are limitations to the self-driven Leaf. While heavy rain presents few problems, fog can severely limit the effectiveness of the detection systems (this isn’t actually all that much different from human drivers).
Additionally, while the Leaf performed flawlessly for the bulk of the drive, there was one frantic grab for the wheel partway through an intersection when an errant delivery truck changed lanes inattentively and illegally. The Leaf might not have needed the correction, but Iijima intervened anyway.
The rollout for these technologies is clearly a few years out, and such is Nissan’s plan. The company’s stated goals are both zero emissions and zero fatalities, and while self-piloted electric vehicles are a way to hit both targets, there won’t be a sudden leap to autonomous cars.
Autonomous Nissan Leaf
Handout, Nissan
Instead, Nissan plans to roll out a piloted driving system by the end of 2016, for use in heavy-traffic conditions on highways only. Consider this to be the equivalent of the lane-keeping systems available from Mercedes and Honda; gentle nudges to make snarled traffic easier to deal with. Basically, we’re talking a more advanced form of cruise control.
The next step is planned for 2018, adding the further feature of being able to change lanes with full autonomy. Currently, Tesla’s autopilot system offers something roughly similar, activated by the turn signal.
As with several other Japanese manufacturers, a target year of 2020 is set for a fuller form of autonomous drive. This will be the production form of the technologies shown here today, capable of navigating urban centres – handling stoplights and intersections.
Autonomous Nissan Leaf
Handout, Nissan
The slow addition of multiple safety features is pretty typical of the way most major manufacturers are handling the introduction of the autonomous car. Vehicles will be fully capable of self-driving long before those abilities are “unlocked” for public consumption. Even now, the combination of lane-keeping functions, automatic braking and radar-guided cruise control comprise most core functions of self-driving in highway conditions.
At this year’s Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan built on the features already under development in their prototype autonomous Leaf with the IDS Concept (pictured below), a thinly disguised version of their future vision. No, we won’t get the double-opening doors, nor the fancy wood trim, nor (probably) the disappearing steering wheel that folds into the dashboard to be replaced by a tablet. However, tame down the looks and examine the spec sheet – a 60 kWh battery, the ability to drive by choice, not by necessity – and you’re looking at a future generation of the Leaf.
It seems fitting, as the Leaf offers the electric vehicle ownership experience in perhaps its most commoditized form. Yes, it’s a bit of an appliance, but people buy appliances to work, and the Leaf does. Adding in a self-driving component – eventually – seems to work just as well.
Nissan IDS Concept
KAZUHIRO NOGI, Getty Images
