A Nissan Leaf has completed the longest and most complex autonomous journey ever made in Britain.
The specially adapted EV was kitted out with a Lidar system, as well as GPS and traditional radar, and travelled 230 miles from Nissan's technical centre in Cranfield, Beds, to its Sunderland manufacturing plant. The aim of the Government-backed experiment, named The Grand Drive, was to develop self-driving technology to “feel human-like and natural.”
A consortium called HumanDrive, which includes the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and the University of Leeds, stumped up a joint funding package of £13.5 million to make it happen.
The journey involved motorway driving on the M1, as well as junctions and roundabouts, plus country lanes which have little or no road markings. The autonomous technology activated along the route to change lanes, merge and stop and start when necessary. Two engineers remained in the car, but the Leaf achieved 99% of the journey driving itself. The only human input was at service stations, when the car needed charging.
Bob Bateman, project manager for Nissan’s Europe technical centre, said: “The HumanDrive project allowed us to develop an autonomous vehicle that can tackle challenges encountered on UK roads that are unique to this part of the world, such as complex roundabouts and high-speed country lanes with no road markings, white lines or kerbs.”
Data from The Grand Drive will help inform development of autonomous driving systems, such as Nissan's current ProPILOT found in the Juke, Leaf, Qashqai and X-Trail, which assists with steering, acceleration and braking.
David Moss, Senior Vice President for Research & Development in Europe, Nissan Europe, said: “Nissan’s Intelligent Mobility vision is to develop autonomous drive technologies for use in all of our cars in any area of the world. The door is now open to build on this successful UK research project, as we move towards a future which is more autonomous, more electric, and more connected.”
Keyword: Nissan Leaf breaks the record for the UK's longest autonomous drive