It is no secret that the majority of modern automakers are working towards realizing the reality of self-driving cars. While this technology is, in all practicality, still some ways off, there’s nothing wrong with getting excited about the baby-steps in that direction. ProPILOT Assist, by Nissan, is one such step. The test version was installed in the Serena minivan but the system is intended to come standard with the 2018 model of Nissan’s electric pièce de résistance: the Nissan LEAF.
So what is it intended to do? As per Nissan, ProPILOT assist aims to reduce the hassle of stop-and-go highway driving. This is fantastic news for those of us who have developed disproportionate clutch-calves and distended retinas from spending hours in morning traffic, slowly oozing our way to work, trying to catch up on our emails as we go.
Nissan has been uncharacteristically closed-mouthed about the inner workings of ProPILOT Assist but has stated that it can exert control over steering, acceleration and braking. Through use of a simple camera and Mobileye processor, ProPILOT monitors front-end traffic. One can therefore safely speculate that ProPILOT Assist will be able to: maintain a safe following distance between you and the car in front of you; apply brakes when the car in front of you slows down; accelerate when the car in front of you does; stop when the car in front of you does and; (hopefully) move off when halted traffic moves once more. In addition, Nissan’s visually stunning (but equally uninformative) video on the subject suggests that ProPILOT Assist will exercise control over steering to make sure you don’t wander from your lane.
While this all sounds almost too good to be true, it must be borne in mind that ProPILOT Assist is merely a very conscientious co-pilot and not an autopilot. The term, ProPILOT Assist, is short for Pro-Active Pilot Assistance (says Nissan’s Kiwamu Aoyanagi, Manager of the AD and ADAS Engineering Division). It needs input by the driver and will, when it is not one hundred percent sure of the correct course of action, prompt the driver to take over.
It also has several built-in limitations to prevent abuse (based on what we know of the Serena version). It is intended only for single-lane travel and one can therefore surmise that it is not equipped to deal with the complexity of lane-changes. The system will not activate unless one is travelling in excess of 50km per hour, thereby preventing use in inner-city settings and busy intersections. It will not activate if the wipers or on, since the camera technology becomes less accurate when confronted with wet roads. If you take your hands of the steering wheel, an insistent and annoying prompt will sound until you replace them, thereby keeping you ready to take over if the co-pilot needs you to.
When one considers that the iconic film, Back to the Future: Part II, predicted that we’d all have flying cars by 2015, a somewhat careful co-pilot seems a step backwards. That is, until one remembers that Terminator II predicted we’d all be dead or enslaved by our robot overlords by 1997. All in all, Nissan’s forward progress is inspiring and their cautious approach should be lauded if for no other reason than it displays a healthy respect for the danger of the Rise of the Machines.
