Renault-Nissan Gives Details on Autonomous Vehicle Plan

The Renault-Nissan Alliance said it would put out a combined 10 vehicles over the next five years with semiautonomous or fully autonomous capability, cementing the group's efforts to be among the leaders in commercializing the technology.

The company made the announcement at an event in Sunnyvale, Calif., where Nissan Motor Co. has a research center and was giving test rides in its autonomous Nissan Leaf.

The alliance of France's Renault SA and Japan's Nissan, led by co-Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, has been more definitive than other auto makers about when it will sell an autonomous car to the public. In October, Mr. Ghosn said the group will sell a fully autonomous car by 2020. By 2018, it plans to put out cars that can drive autonomously on highways, and this year cars that can drive in one lane, handling stopping, accelerating and steering, but no lane changes.

The industry is racing to implement autonomous vehicle technology, demonstrated by events at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas, where car makers such as Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co., Audi AG and Volvo Car Corp. used the gathering to make announcements about their plans to take the steering wheel out of the hands of drivers.

Nissan-Renault also announced the hiring of Ogi Redzic, the former senior vice president of mapping company Nokia Here, to run its connected car and autonomous vehicle programs. The mapping company, which was recently acquired by a consortium of BMW AG, Daimler AG and Volkswagen AG, is considered a vital provider of high-definition maps usable for autonomous vehicles.

Write to Mike Ramsey at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 07, 2016 15:25 ET (20:25 GMT)

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