The National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA) and the Japanese automaker, Nissan, have decided to work in conjunction in a research and development project lasting five years. The purpose of this collaboration project between the two is to evaluate and then further advance self-driving vehicles and to get ready for commercial application of the self-driving technology in the future.
The terms in the agreement between the two parties mention that the employees currently working at the Silicon Valley Research Center that belongs to Nissan will have the authority to work hand in hand with the staffs of the Ames Research Center that belongs to NASA. Together, they will develop and evaluate self-driving system, network-enabled applications, interface solutions that bridge human to machine and also the software required to do so. To help them in their project, both these companies will run some tests on a number of self-driving vehicles with zero emission. This is to help them figure out just how capable such vehicles are to transport payloads, materials, goods and most importantly, people.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO Nissan, points out that the project that both Nissan and NASA are working on actually share similar challenges. The only difference that exists is that whereas one party is more focused onto earth, the other is more focused onto space. According to Ghosn, this joint project will benefit Nissan as the Japanese automaker will have the ability to speed up its development of a reliable, secure and also safe self-driving technology. Ghosn claims that Nissan plans to introduce such a technology during the span of 2016 to 2020.
