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Nissan promising autonomous car production by 2020

Nissan will bring the autonomous car to consumers by the end of this decade. The announcement was made by CEO Carlos Ghosn at the company's US headquarters in Irvine, CA. Nissan has already begun construction of a dedicated proving ground for the self-driving cars in Japan, with completion targeted for the end of 2014.
Teaming with MIT, Stanford, Oxford and others, Nissan has already outfitted Leaf EVs with the Autonomous Drive (Nissan's brand name for the tech), a suite of new technologies developed from the brand's existing Safety Shield technology. The current iteration of Autonomous Drive uses the Around-View Monitoring system and laser scanners to analyze the environment, while artificial intelligence systems have been installed to help navigate and operate in a changing environment.
While it's easy to say that Nissan will bring the technology to market within the next six or seven years, it's more difficult to say at what price Autonomous Drive will be available. Most remarkable about all of this is Nissan's claim that self-driving cars will be both commercially viable and available at "realistic prices for consumers." It's expecting Autonomous Drive to be available across its range within two vehicle generations.

Nissan says talks with Renault focused on better competing in electric cars

TOKYO — Nissan's talks with Renault on revamping their alliance are focused on strengthening competitiveness as equal partners and getting the most from their investment in electric cars, the Japanese automaker's CEO told Reuters. The negotiations with Renault, Nissan's top shareholder, have less than two weeks remaining to meet a Nov. 15 target the companies had set to reach a deal, according to people with knowledge of the talks. Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida declined to comment on whether an agreement could be reached this month. But he said he was talking with Renault CEO Luca de Meo every weekend and the talks would be "ongoing for the future." People familiar with the negotiations have said the sharing of technology had emerged as one sticking point. Uchida, who has spent much of his Nissan career in positions related to the Franco-Japanese alliance, emphasised that the talks were based on mutual trust. Each company had valuable technology and discussions of technology transfers were to be expected, he added. He said the goal was to improve the automakers' ability to compete at a time of economic uncertainty and as the industry pushes toward what he described as its biggest transformation in a century with the shift to electric vehicles. "The discussion we are having is about how to make our competitiveness even stronger," Uchida said in an interview with Reuters on Friday. "That's number one." His comments were his first to media since the automakers last month said they were discussing the future of their alliance. The partnership, which began with a 1999 investment from Renault and was long overseen by former executive-turned-fugitive Carlos Ghosn, was critical to turning around the Japanese automaker. But Nissan executives have over the years bristled over the unequal ownership structure, with Renault owning 43% of Nissan and the Japanese automaker holding only a 15% non-voting stake in Renault. People with knowledge of the talks have said the two sides have been discussing a reduction in Renault's stake, potentially to 15%, and the terms under which that could happen. "We want it to be an equal partnership," Uchida said, adding that an "equal partnership would make sense and that would speed up the collaboration even more." He did not comment on potential stake levels.

Half of Chinese car buyers won't shop Japanese over hard feelings

The hard feelings between China and Japan is no real secret. Besides modern-day disputes, the two countries have had a long-running enmity that dates back to well before the atrocities of World War II. All things considered, then, it shouldn't be a shock that half of Chinese car buyers wouldn't consider a Japanese car. This survey, conducted by Bernstein Research, found that 51 percent of 40,000 Chinese consumers wouldn't even consider a Japanese car – which, again, isn't really surprising, when you consider stories like this. According to Bernstein, the most troubling thing is the location of these sentiments – smaller, growing cities where the population is going to need sets of wheels. We imagine it wouldn't be as big of an issue in traffic-clogged Shanghai or Beijing, but these small cities are going to become a major focus for automakers. "Nationalistic feelings are an impediment. [Japanese] premium brands will struggle," analyst Max Warburton wrote in a research note, according to The Wall Street Journal. Things will improve for Japanese makes, although China will remain a challenge, with Warburton writing, "the one thing that comes out most clearly is that most Chinese really want a German car. While we expect Japanese brands to continue to recover market share this year, ultimately the market will belong to the Germans." There are a few other insights from the study. According to WSJ, Japanese brands are viewed better than Korean brands, and they're seen as more comfortable than the offerings from Germany or the US, despite the fact that everyone in China apparently wants a German car. This is a tough position for the Japanese makes to be in, as there's really not a lot they can do to win favor with Chinese buyers. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, particularly as the importance of the PRC continues to increase year after year. News Source: The Wall Street Journal - sub. req.Image Credit: Kazuhiro Nogi / AFP / Getty Images Honda Mazda Nissan Toyota Car Buying