Nissan ProPilot X (future release) Review (in Japanese)

[hiroshiy]

Today I found an article on one of automotive sites in Japan reviewing Nissan ProPilot X, which will be relased in 2020. The car drove itself from regular two lane divided street to three lane Shuto Expressway route B, then merge to two lane Shuto Expressway route C2. The route seems to be approximately 10km (6.3 miles). This car had Mr. Iijima (the famous engineer appeared on YouTube video) in the driver seat and the reporter in the passenger seat.
自動運転はできていた！ 日産“プロパイロットX”
Google Translate: Google Translate

The car was equipped with 12 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 9 radars, and 6 LIDARs with High Definition maps. The engineer overtook the driving only once during the trip. The car was able to turn left, right, merge to highway, follow signals and enter available toll gate at the highway entrance.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Interesting, thank you!

 

[davidc18]

Interesting article especially at the end where they discuss the automation levels and social acceptance.

 

[SlicedBr3ad]

Let me take a step back to summarize. The car had about $200k worth of sensors and failed to used them once during the demonstration. Unlike waymo cars which I expect to have similar or fewer sensor and working in Arizona on public streets without drivers. Hopefully Nissan fixes this and becomes competition for the sake of all of us. The more competent competition, the better.

 

[Phrixotrichus]

12 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, 9 radars, and 6 LIDARs with High Definition maps

The car had about $200k worth of sensors

You might want to really re-check your price ideas....lidars are in the low 100s and the rest of the suite is a dime a dozen.....

You should also re-check nissan`s demos so far. Their results have been on par with anything Tesla/Audi and co have shown......

 

[SlicedBr3ad]

Are your really trying to get me on price and performance technicalities? Perhaps cost is not$250k. I have seen reports of Lidars costing 100s but those aren't the ones being used. We are looking at 6x $7.5k in Lidars alone. What about performance? Are these cars anywhere in world without driver like waymo? Don't believe so.

Cost sources:

"the most crucial part of a driverless car as it uses lasers to generate maps of the car's surroundings -- reduced by 90%. The price of a Lidar sensor was $75,000 in 2009, but it costs just $7,500 now(Feb 2017)."

What it really costs to turn a car into a self-driving vehicle

Alphabet’s Waymo Leads the Field in Driverless Cars

 

[banned-66611]

Waymo is constrained to an easier area though. Nissan has been testing its cars around London too.

In a TV demo the human had to take over once to pull around a bus that had stopped to pick up passengers. The car would have waited for it to move again.

The hand over was incredibly smooth. The guy took the wheel, moved around and simply let go. The car took over seamlessly.

 

[Phrixotrichus]

Are your really trying to get me on price and performance technicalities? Perhaps cost is not$250k. I have seen reports of Lidars costing 100s but those aren't the ones being used. We are looking at 6x $7.5k in Lidars alone. What about performance? Are these cars anywhere in world without driver like waymo? Don't believe so.

Cost sources:

"the most crucial part of a driverless car as it uses lasers to generate maps of the car's surroundings -- reduced by 90%. The price of a Lidar sensor was $75,000 in 2009, but it costs just $7,500 now(Feb 2017)."

What it really costs to turn a car into a self-driving vehicle

Alphabet’s Waymo Leads the Field in Driverless Cars

Basically you`re argumenting with "I´ve read somewhere" without actually checking the facts......

Waymo may very well use expensive high end Lidars but how do you know Nissan wont use the kind Audi uses in their driver-suite where the manufacturer claims high-end performance for just a "few" bucks?

Extrapolating high volume prices from a one page article talking about a few special protoype development cars is absolutely stupid!

 

[lunitiks]