Unveiled this week in Tokyo, the autonomous IDS Concept may preview the popular electric car's next act. Autonomous operation — the dream of never driving — is a nightmare for true car-lovers. They see a future in which we are just passive passengers, working Sudoku puzzles on integrated e-readers as cybernetic cabbies shuttle us down curveless superhighways. In this future, we are merely cargo.
Nissan wants to wake you from that dream. With the IDS Concept, unveiled this week at the Tokyo Motor Show, they argue for a future in which autonomous vehicles can keep people at the center of the driving experience.
The zero-emission IDS is autonomous, but not in no-steering-wheel, Google Self-Driving Car sort of way. It’s more of a cyborg approach, with distinct autonomous and manual modes. When human-piloted, the car’s sensor array “improves a driver’s ability to see, think and react,” and will assist with braking and evasive action in dangerous situations. In Piloted Drive, artificial intelligence takes over, but will actually echo the driving style of the driver that trains it (a technology that we hope will break some bad habits).
The four-seater hatchback is an aerodynamically muscular design, with big wheels at the corners and huge expanses of glass. Inside the suicide doors, the passenger compartment is a showroom of bent- plywood and leather furniture. When autonomous mode is engaged, the chairs swivel slightly to facilitate conversation, the dashboard recedes, and the steering yoke is traded for a flatscreen. In this mode, there is a single button attached to the driver’s seat which can take the car back into human-driven mode.
Nissan also has given thought to how an autonomous car might interact with people that are not currently sitting inside it, using lights to tell pedestrians and cyclists that they’ve been spotted by the car’s sensors. There’s even a brilliant (if perhaps inelegant) front-facing message board that tells people in the crosswalk, “after you” — since you’re too busy with your Sudoku to give a smile and a half-wave.