A new bill passed in the Queen’s Speech that supports the integration of autonomous vehicle technologies led Nissan to announce its plans regarding the semi-autonomous Qashqai.
The Qashqai will be the first Nissan model in Europe and the first manufactured car in the UK, equipped with the stage one ‘single-lane control’ ProPilot feature and will be mass-produced at the manufacturing plant in Sunderland and sold in the UK and across Europe.
The system, allows the car to drive autonomously in a single lane in heavy traffic conditions on highways and is the first step in Nissan’s long-term plan to launch a range of vehicles with autonomous capabilities by 2020.
Paul Willcox, Chairman of Nissan Europe, had this to say:
“The introduction of ProPilot technology will be an evolution not a revolution as the building blocks for this are already in place in many of our cars today through our Safety Shield Technology. Any new legislation, such as we’ve seen announced, that supports the adoption and integration of autonomous vehicle technologies, is a positive for the UK.”