Nissan and NASA to work on autonomous vehicles

Nissan and NASA has announced a collaboration to focus on developing autonomous drive systems, human-machine interface solutions, network-enabled applications, and software analysis and verification. These involve sophisticated hardware and software used in road and space applications. The Nissan-NASA partnership is a five-year research and development partnership to advance autonomous vehicle systems and prepare for commercial application of the technology.

"The work of NASA and Nissan – with one directed to space and the other directed to earth, is connected by similar challenges," said Carlos Ghosn, president, Nissan. "The partnership will accelerate Nissan's development of safe, secure and reliable autonomous drive technology that we will progressively introduce to consumers beginning in 2016 up to 2020," added Ghosn.

Nissan has set 2020 as the timeframe for the introduction of autonomous drive vehicles that have the ability to navigate in nearly all situations, including the most complex situation, city driving.