Autonomous Nissan Leaf crosses the UK
Among other things, an autonomous hatchback drove 370 km from Cranfield to Sunderland
The British consortium HumanDrive has completed the main phase of testing several autonomous cars based on the electric vehicle of the previous generation Nissan Leaf. Among other things, an autonomous hatchback drove 370 km from Cranfield to Sunderland. This flight, the longest autonomous run in the UK called Grand Drive, required a 30-month training period during which an advanced autopilot system was created.
The project involves Nissan's European division, the Center for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), Hitachi, the universities of Leeds and Cranfield, and the experiment is supported by the British government through the technology agency Innovate UK.
As usual in such cases, the car uses GPS navigation for orientation, a number of cameras, radars and lidars. The entire series of experiments together with the reconstruction of cars cost 13,5 million pounds.
An important point in this series of tests, in addition to the Grand Drive journey itself, is the testing of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies (Hitachi Europe helped in this part of the experiment). Participants in the experiment tested various driving scenarios in an enclosed space to determine how artificial intelligence can improve vehicle behavior, taking into account the experience gained in previous trips, and, in particular, the “memory” of various opportunities to avoid obstacles.
An autonomous electric car dealt not only with conventional highways, but also with small suburban roads where the markings were poor or completely absent, with intersections (including roundabouts), intersections with lanes, with changing lanes, etc.
In addition, a series of experiments helped evaluate the cybersecurity of autonomous vehicles and their impact on the transport system. We add that in the current generation, the Nissan Leaf electric car is equipped with a ProPILOT autopilot. But for complete autonomy, it must still grow and grow. Such experiments will simply help in its evolution.
