Nissan revamps ProPilot to rival Tesla's driver-assist technology Nissan Motor is on a mission under new CEO Ivan Espinosa to rebuild its business, and while refreshing its lineup is a key part of that, so is winning back customers who demand cutting-edge technology. Leveraging its partnership with Wayve Technologies, a U.K.-based artificial intelligence startup backed by SoftBank Group, Nissan is preparing to launch the newest generation of its ProPilot driver-assistance system during the fiscal year ending March 2028. The automaker says the most advanced iteration of its driver-assist technology will be on par with Tesla's Full Self-Driving, which despite its name requires human supervision and intervention. While the systems still amount to Level 2 autonomy -- meaning a person must always be ready to take over -- ProPilot amounts to Nissan's best foot forward in contending with the U.S. EV giant and Alphabet's Waymo in the race to build self-driving cars. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.

Washington, DC (CNN)Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company will roll out the latest beta version of its "full self-driving" software to 1,000 owners this weekend. Yet there aren't actually any self-driving cars for sale today, according to autonomous vehicle experts and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates cars. Tesla's "full self-driving" is more like an enhanced cruise control, they say. Videos posted on the internet by people who already have the feature unlocked show that it might stop for traffic lights and turn smoothly at intersections, but it also might veer toward pedestrians or confuse the moon for a traffic signal. Tesla says that a human driver needs to be watching and ready to take over at any moment, and the company is only allowing initial access to the system to the people it considers the safest drivers.

Waymo, a unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., is saying good-bye to'self-driving'--not the technology, just the term. In a blog post Wednesday, the company announced it would now be using the phrase'autonomous driving' to avoid confusion that could lead a driver to take their hands off the wheel at a dangerous moment. 'It may seem like a small change, but it's an important one,' the company said in a blog post, 'because precision in language matters and could save lives.' But industry insiders believe the change is a jab at Elon Musk's Tesla, which began touting its'full self-driving' (FSD) option last fall - but is only capable of assisting drivers. Waymo announced it will no longer use the term'self-driving' in favor of'autonomous driving,' to avoid confusion.

Automakers have already spent at least $16 billion developing self-driving technology, with the promise of someday creating fully autonomous vehicles.2 What has been the result? Although it seems that we have more promises than actual progress, some encouraging experiments are now under way, and there have been intermediate benefits in the form of driver-assist safety features. Engineers started on this quest to automate driving several decades ago, when passenger vehicles first began deploying cameras, radar, and limited software controls. In the 1990s, automakers introduced radar-based adaptive cruise control and dynamic traction control for braking.

Until recently, there was no question about who's responsible for an automobile's operation: the driver. When driverless cars without a steering wheel or brake pedal start hitting the highway, your only role will be ordering the car where to go. Between now and then -- about five years by automakers' estimates -- the relationship between drivers and their cars will enter uncharted territory. Robot-like features will take over an increasing share of the driving duties -- but not all of them. It's by no means clear how well people will adapt during this transitional phase, when human and robots will share the wheel.

Until recently, there was no question about who's responsible for an automobile's operation: the driver. Going forward, as driverless cars hit the roads en masse, that distinction will fade. When the robot cars get here, you'll be able to eat, text and sleep, but you won't drive, because there won't be a steering wheel or brake pedal. Your only role: Order the car where to go. Yet there's a lot of ground between the old-school cars that people are used to and the driverless experience promised in the next few years.