YOKOSUKA, Japan -- Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan, using them to tow vehicles on trailers to the wharf for loading onto transport ships.
The automaker thinks the technology will, in the long run, save costs and boost efficiency. The tests also can add to knowledge needed to take autonomous driving onto public roads.
Nissan executive Haruhiko Yoshimura said the automaker hopes to use the technology throughout the Oppama plant by 2019, and in overseas plants in the future.
During a demonstration last week, a Leaf car with no one inside scooted along the road, pulling a trailer with three other Leafs on it, stopped properly for other vehicles, and then maneuvered into a parking lot.
But one vehicle ran into trouble, refused to move and was not able to take part in the demonstration.
Kazuhiro Doi, a Nissan vice president, acknowledged such glitches showed a challenge to the technology.
"If there are drivers, they can take action," he said. "Mechanical operations are all there is in a driverless car."
Nissan, which makes the March subcompact, Infiniti luxury models and the Leaf electric car, currently has just two of the self-driving Leaf cars.
To tow all the vehicles produced at the Oppama plant, five more driverless vehicles will be needed, according to Nissan.
People still had to get inside each of the towed vehicles to drive them to the proper wharf, but Nissan hopes that as self-driving technology advances cars will drive themselves up the planks, into the ships on their own.
Driverless cars are still not allowed on public roads in Japan. Driverless driving is legal within private facilities like Nissan's.
In commercial products available in Japan, vehicles with some variation of autonomous driving can stop on their own before a crash or stay inside the lane on their own for highway driving, although all must have drivers.
Nissan, allied with Renault SA of France, has been carrying out tests with driverless towing since last year.
SundayMonday Business on 12/12/2016