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Nissan and NASA team up on autonomous zero-emissions test fleet

Nissan and NASA have announced a collaboration on autonomous vehicles that, if we're honest, makes more sense to us than Infiniti partnering with Red Bull. The two are commencing a five-year R&D program to explore autonomous drive systems, human-machine interfaces, network-enabled applications, and software analysis and verification. What's more: the test fleet will be zero emissions and rolling around NASA's Ames Research Center by the end of this year. We will assume that means autonomous Leafs, but Nissan could be working on a new vehicle for the purpose. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said the company will begin offering autonomous features "beginning in 2016," and wants to have commercially available self-piloting vehicles that can "navigate in nearly all situations," including urban environments, by 2020. Who better to assist than the people who put a self-driving rover on a planet that never gets closer than 34 million miles away? What does NASA get out of it? Access to Nissan's materials and component developments, prototyping systems, and robotic software test beds. Sounds like everybody wins. The press release below has more information. Nissan and NASA partner to jointly develop and deploy autonomous drive vehicles by end of year SUNNYVALE, Calif. Jan. 8, 2015 - Nissan Motor Co., through its North American-based organization, and NASA today announced the formation of a five-year research and development partnership to advance autonomous vehicle systems and prepare for commercial application of the technology. Researchers from Nissan's U.S. Silicon Valley Research Center and NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., will focus on autonomous drive systems, human-machine interface solutions, network-enabled applications, and software analysis and verification, all involving sophisticated hardware and software used in road and space applications. Researchers from the two organizations will test a fleet of zero-emission autonomous vehicles at Ames to demonstrate proof-of-concept remote operation of autonomous vehicles for the transport of materials, goods, payloads and people. For NASA, these tests parallel the way it operates planetary rovers from a mission control center. The first vehicle of that fleet should be testing at the facility by the end of 2015. "The work of NASA and Nissan – with one directed to space and the other directed to earth, is connected by similar challenges," said Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan Motor Co.

2014 Nissan Frontier Diesel Mule [w/poll]

Last August, Nissan shook the truck world when it officially announced plans to source a diesel option from Cummins for its long-overdue Titan replacement, its full-size pickup that's slated to drop this January at the Detroit Auto Show. The 5.0-liter V8 turbodiesel is expected to make somewhere around 300 horsepower and north of 500 pound-feet of torque. This combination of an all-new truck with this new powerplant promises to dramatically change the competitive landscape, splitting the difference between the heavy-duty goliaths from the Detroit Three and the Ram 1500 Ecodiesel. And the intrigue moved a step further when the Frontier Diesel Runner Concept showed up at February's Chicago Auto Show, as it displayed a growing relationship between Nissan and Cummins in a very interesting potential future product.
That concept would melt its clear acrylic hood if the engine ran too long, but this month, we got a chance to test drive a production mule, an otherwise normal Frontier with a Cummins 2.8-liter diesel four-pot under the hood and a ZF eight-speed automatic changing gears. The powertrain figures to be a direct competitor to the 2.8-liter Duramax promised for General Motors' Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon twins, but will Nissan build it? All signs point to probably. Officially, Nissan is taking no position on the future of this program, but a concept followed by putting journalists into a test mule suggests the company is considering the option very seriously. Here's what we gleaned from a brief drive around the posh suburbs of Nashville:
Before we get too deep into this Quick Spin, realize this Frontier is absolutely a mule, not a prototype. More or less cobbled together with duct tape and baling wire, it's not meant to be representative of a finished product, or even a started product. The transmission and shifter is straight out of a Chrysler 300 and the shifter surround is cut out of a panel of plastic. The "Low Sulfur Diesel Only" sticker is, well, just stuck on. We're looking at a "What if?" mockup.

Nissan GT-R Nismo 'Ring time makes it track's 'fastest volume production car' [w/video]

Performance cars are fun to drive and all, but at the end of the day ,owners drop big bucks on what are often ridiculously unpractical vehicles for the bragging rights. And when it comes to ultimate bragging rights, few get more publicized than lap times for everyone's favorite stretch of German pavement, the Nürburgring. Enter the 2015 Nissan GT-R Nismo.
After rumors about a 7:08 lap time appeared yesterday, Nissan confirmed has confirmed the news today with video footage of the run, which took place on September 30. The official lap time is just seven minutes and 8.679 seconds, putting the GT-R Nismo about 11 seconds off the pace of the Porsche 918 Spyder - some six seconds quicker than the far costlier Lexus LFA. Some admitted - but hard-to-spot - missteps by Nissan driver Michael Krumm would indicate that the car actually left some time on the table.
With this time, Nissan claims that the 595-horsepower GT-R Nismo is the "fastest volume production car" around the track. The definition of "volume" could surely be contested here, though, considering the small numbers in which the GT-R is sold. While we don't have global GT-R sales figures, this year has only seen 1,063 units sold through October, and there were close to 1,300 sold in all of 2011 and about 1,200 in 2012. While this loosely defined claim will only add to the Nürburgring lap time squabbling, it is no less impressive. Check out the record run for yourself in the video below, which is accompanied by an official press release.