Nissan’s North American unit has entered into a five-year research and development partnership with NASA to develop autonomous vehicle systems for commercial application.
Researchers from the car maker's Silicon Valley Research Center and NASA's Ames Research Center will work on autonomous drive systems, human-machine interface solutions, software analysis and verification, and network-enabled applications.
The researchers are expected to test a fleet of zero-emission autonomous vehicles at Ames Research Center to exhibit proof-of-concept remote operation of autonomous vehicles for the transportation of people, materials, payloads, and goods.
As for NASA, it is expected to benefit from Nissan's shared expertise in innovative component technologies for autonomous vehicles.
According to the terms of the partnership, Nissan will give NASA access prototype systems and provision of test beds for robotic software, and shared research to inform development of vehicular transport applications.
Nissan Motor CEO Carlos Ghosn said: "The work of NASA and Nissan - with one directed to space and the other directed to earth, is connected by similar challenges.
"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."
Nissan is planning to introduce autonomous vehicles in 2020, which will be capable of navigating on its own in complex situation like city roads.
Image: Nissan and NASA partner to jointly develop and deploy autonomous drive vehicles. Photo: courtesy of Nissan.
