Nissan Announces Self-Driving IDS Concept With 500km Range
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The 2015 Tokyo Motor Show is bursting with EV goodness, with much of the excitement coming from Nissan. This year, the company brought along a new-to-the-world concept — the Nissan IDS. As Nissan aspires to live in a world with zero emissions, going way back to when it first introduced the LEAF, you can imagine this hot ride is electric — and it is. The IDS is, at it’s core, the next iteration of the mainstream consumer vehicle that the LEAF is in the EV market today — but perhaps 10 years into the future.
Presenting at the show, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn shared an excerpt about the company’s vision for the future of personal mobility: “Nissan’s forthcoming technologies will revolutionize the relationship between car and driver, and future mobility.”
The IDS delivers on this with two different driving modes — manual and Piloted Drive, or PD. This allows one to choose whether or not they feel like driving, are able to drive, or just want to relax… as needed. While PD is fully automated, safety features while in manual mode were also highlighted, indicating that the car maintains awareness and the ability to intervene even when in manual mode. This continues an exciting trend of leveraging autopilot features to improve safety. The more manufacturers that start integrating these intelligent driving features into their cars, the better, as that will drive faster improvements in the technology, lower costs, and ultimately, safer roads for all of us.
Another feature that’s more on the fun side of things is that the car appears to have a personality that it uses to relate to the driver, passengers, and even pedestrians on the street, sending messages via its dash-mounted, scrolling, LED screen. Check out the video below for a more fleshed out interpretation of how the concept fits into the life of the rich and famous, zooming around to lunch dates and performances… just for fun.
This car really wants to be your friend and could most accurately be described as the personality of Jarvis from Iron Man, Siri on those i-devices, or Cortana (for the 4 people out there with Windows phones). I would expect it to be fully integrated to all my intimate details of work, play, finance, and the like, and maybe even fold the laundry (hey, a guy can dream).
The result of the automation and technology that’s been rolled into the IDS is a seamless, quiet experience that makes life better. Feel like driving? Go ahead! Want to take a nap? Drop your seat back for a quick power nap — I ‘ll drive! Want to get some work done? Feel free to use the huge dash display to get it on! Want to talk and actually look at the person next to you? Done.
The concept video is chalk full of features and even seems to have a supersplendulous windscreen and very thin a-pillars to further accentuate the viewing angles and maximize the panoramic views for the driver. Further accentuating the different driving modes, the car’s interior physically adapts to changes with the steering wheel moving in and out of the way, the center console moving around, and the seats being released to swivel a little when in autopilot/PD mode. It seems like this would make driving more social, though the majority of driving in the US takes place with only 1 person in the car, making it difficult to be social regardless of the context.
All of this cool tech is wrapped in a very sporty exterior that looks like a cross between the diminutive Lexus CT200h with it’s short but sporty stance and the Chevy Bolt concept with it’s full glass ceiling and futuristic lighting enclosures.
“We ride towards harmony with car, society and the world”
Gallery images courtesy: Nissan
The video below paints a compelling future as envisioned by Nissan with its IDS at the center:
Related: Nissan Spills Details of 60-kWh LEAF At Its Advanced Technology Center
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