Renault-Nissan head honcho Carlos Ghosn has poured cold water on Elon Musk’s claims that Tesla will have a fully autonomous car on public roads in the near future. While Ghosn announced a year ago that Renault-Nissan would have an autonomous vehicle on the roads by 2020, Musk said a Tesla would be able to drive itself, coast-to-coast across the US, “within 24 to 36 months.”
Speaking at a reception just before the Detroit motor show, Ghosn said, “I understand there is a marketing war, a lot of announcements; that’s fair, everybody wants a piece of it, but at the same time judge on what is on the market.” It was reported by Autocar UK that Ghosn is insistent that a true self-driving car is still some years in the making.
He called into question the definition of an autonomous vehicle, saying if it was just a matter of lane-changing and station-keeping, the technology was already here, or almost ready. “But if you’re talking about autonomous driving in a city, with crossroads or the car making decisions in complicated situations, then frankly I don’t think it’s going to be ready before 2020,” said Ghosn.
Ghosn pointed out self-driving did not mean a lack of user involvement. “What is very important is that we don’t want the consumer to be just able to buy the car; we want him to be able to drive it,” he said. He added that many people give up driving because they can’t, due to age, health or handicaps.
“This technology is going to enable you to drive until you don’t want to any more. You will be able to drive no matter what your handicap, no matter what your impairment is. With this technology, you’re going to be able to drive at 80 years old, 90 years old. This is important as the planet’s population is getting older,” said Ghosn.
Nissan unveiled the IDS Concept – a self-driving EV – at the Tokyo motor show in October 2015. Designed for both manual and piloted modes, the IDS Concept features a 60 kW battery along with ‘Artificial Intelligence’ that adapts the car’s driving modes to the driver’s preference.
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autonomous driving is impossible in Asian countries like here.. road users are too rude for this technology
No poblem, just build it with LED middle finger technology to showcase big middle finger instead of driver need to lift his precious finger. This is automation of showing middle finger
You can test using Volvo’s auto driving technology here in Malaysia. Most of the times it works but sometimes it doesn’t and if you don’t intervene you will crash.