TECH

NISSAN and DeNA TO START TESTING WITH AUTOMATIC MOBILITY SERVICE

Nissan Motor Co Ltd and the Japanese company DeNA Co Ltd will begin testing an autonomous mobility service with robotic vehicles starting March 5.The Easy Ride mobility service can be requested by anyone who wishes to move to their destination in a robotic vehicle. During public roadway testing in Minato Mirai, a district of Yokohama, in the Japanese province of Kanagawa, participants may be transported in vehicles equipped with autonomous driving technology on a predetermined route. The itinerary covers about 4.5 km between Nissan's world headquarters and the Yokohama World Porters mall.To ensure operational efficiency and peace of mind for customers, Nissan and DeNA maintains a remote monitoring center that utilizes the advanced technologies of both companies.Nissan and DeNA will also test the unique functions of the Easy Ride service. Thanks to an application specially created for use in smartphones, which recognizes instructions both through text and speech. Passengers can tell where they want to go by choosing one of the suggested destinations from a list. Inside the vehicle, a tablet screen will display around 500 options available, including points of interest and nearby events. In addition, approximately 40 discount coupons for use in restaurants and retail stores located nearby will be available for download on the participants' own smartphones.

Passengers should complete a questionnaire about their experience as users, their impressions about the ease of use of the contents and coupons offered by restaurants and shops, as well as the price they would like to pay for the Easy Ride service. Nissan and DeNA will use search results in service development and future road test runs.
The road tests will allow Nissan and DeNA to learn from the experience gained from Easy Ride testing with public participation. In addition to their goal to offer this type of service as part of their business, Nissan and DeNA will work together to develop services for autonomous driving environments, allowing the expansion of itineraries and improvement of vehicle distribution algorithms, delivery and multilingual support. Nissan and DeNA want to launch the Easy Ride service in a restricted perimeter in a first phase, predicting that the final phase of implementation will happen in the early 2020s.
As customers can discover new destinations nearby, the partner companies expect the Easy Ride service to contribute to giving new life to the cities and their surroundings.




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