Nissan plans to introduce a production self-driving automobile by 2020, company CEO Carlos Ghosn announced earlier this week at the company’s American headquarters in Irvine, California.Named Autonomous Drive and developed with the help of research teams from MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Carnegie Mellon, and the University of Tokyo, the new technology has already been tested anddemonstrated on the Leaf EV during the Nissan 360 event this month.“Nissan’s autonomous driving technology is an extension of its Safety Shield, which monitors a 360-degree view around a vehicle for risks, offers warnings to the driver and takes action if necessary (…) The technology being demonstrated at Nissan 360 means the car could drive autonomously on a highway – sticking to or changing lanes and avoiding collisions – without a map. It can also be integrated with a standard in-car navigation system so the vehicle knows which turns to take to reach its destination,” the automaker explains.Nissan also argues that an autonomous vehicle would make sense since 93 percent of accidents in the United States (six million per year) happen due to human error.

“Nissan Motor Company’s willingness to question conventional thinking and to drive progress – is what sets us apart,” said CEO Carlos Ghosn. “In 2007 I pledged that – by 2010 – Nissan would mass market a zero-emission vehicle. Today, the Nissan LEAF is the best-selling electric vehicle in history. Now I am committing to be ready to introduce a new ground-breaking technology, Autonomous Drive, by 2020, and we are on track to realize it.”