After two years of faltering sales and fallout from the 2018 arrest of then-Chairman Carlos Ghosn, Nissan Motor Co.'s newly installed management is at another crossroads: how to get Japan's second-largest automaker out of a rut and beyond the shadow of the disgraced executive who drove its strategy for decades. It's a tall order, particularly considering Nissan's hefty pile of debt, around ¥8.3 trillion ($80 billion) -- double what it had 10 years ago -- lackluster showing in Europe, and U.K. factory supply chain woes. Nissan is also facing unparalleled competition, especially in the realm of advanced autonomous driving. The automaker spends only about half of the ¥1 trillion that Toyota Motor Corp. outlays annually on research and development and carmakers in general lag behind capital-rich tech firms like Alphabet Inc., which has spent more than $1 billion on self-driving technology via subsidiary Waymo LLC. Nissan Senior Vice President Takao Asami is cognizant of the challenges, admitting that "if we lose out in terms of technology, we're going to lose out in terms of business." "Lately there's been a lot of discussion internally about what our DNA is, what areas we can dig deep into and win," Asami said in an interview.

The marketing of driving assistance features such as Autopilot, ProPilot and others as "autonomous" is setting unrealistic expectations and causing dangerous driving, according to insurers and vehicle safety researchers. In a report, Thatcham Research and the Association of British Insurers (ABI) say that drivers are being lulled into a false sense of security by the marketing of new driver assistance features making their way into cars and costing upwards of £20,000. Features such as Tesla's Enhanced Autopilot and Nissan's ProPilot, as well as terms such as "full self-driving capability" and being "capable of driving autonomously" are giving the false impression of a level of autonomy not yet available. As such, drivers are not treating these features with the level of scrutiny and attention required resulting in crashes and dangerous driving. "We are starting to see real-life examples of the hazardous situations that occur when motorists expect the car to drive and function on its own," said Matthew Avery, the head of research at Thatcham Research. "Specifically, where the technology is taking ownership of more and more of the driving task, but the motorist may not be sufficiently aware that they are still required to take back control in problematic circumstances."

An affordable British-built self-driving family car that can steer and brake by itself has been launched in the UK today by Japanese car giant Nissan. It has fitted its school-run favourite Nissan Qashqai sports utility vehicle with advanced autonomous driving technology that until now has been the preserve of expensive luxury vehicles such as top of the range BMW and Mercedes-Benz models. We were among the first to try the latest model - and the autonomous driving modes - on and off-road before it hits showrooms. Britain's first semi-autonomous car: The Sunderland-built Qashqai SUV will be the first UK-assembled model designed for families that will feature a host of new driverless tech Equipped with Nissan's new'ProPilot' system, the smart Qashqai, built at its UK factory in Sunderland, can steer, accelerate and brake automatically using data supplied by a camera mounted on its windscreen and a radar behind badge on front grille. Nissan stresses that its self-driving technology is currently there to aid the driver, not to take over from him or her. It added that the system should help transform driving by making it'less stressful and more confident'.

The Nissan Leaf does pretty well for the automaker. It's one of the best selling EVs ever and today the company introduced a redesigned $29,990 Leaf with ProPilot, a hands-on semi-autonomous feature for heavy traffic. With a 150 mile range and a price about $700 cheaper than it predecessor, Nissan is determined to stay at the top of the electric-vehicle sales-numbers pile. Nissan unveiled the 2018 Leaf at events in Las Vegas and Tokyo with an aggressive new design for the four-door hatchback. With a 150 mile range (the current model has a 107 mile range), it doesn't quite compete with the Tesla Model 3 or Chevy Bolt. But it has a price tag that's $5,000 cheaper than those two vehicles which may have some potential customers debating the if 100 miles is worth the extra cash.

Audi unveiled a self-driven A8 in Barcelona Tuesday. The 2019 model comes with level 3 autonomy and does not have a price tag yet. The sedan comes with a hybrid engine and a new infotainment system. But in terms of self-driving technology, Audi has engineered the system to best suit its premium buyers. Audi's autonomous driving system comes with a feature called the AI Traffic Jam Pilot, which will help navigate the car during traffic jams by moving autonomously, without any driver input to move out of the gridlock.

The next generation Leaf EV will be the first with ProPilot driver assist in North American and Europe, and Nissan has just showed how that will look. Activated by a button on the steering wheel, it can control steering, braking and acceleration, but only in a single freeway lane. The driver can see exactly what's going on with the aid of a fancy animation front and center in the largely digital dashboard. Automakers' self-driving systems will always be compared to Tesla, whose Autopilot is the most advanced available commercially. In Nissan's case, the ProPilot will help with boring highway cruising, but is a far cry from the semi-automatic Autopilot.

Yusuke Goto would have crashed his Toyota Crown five years ago if the premium sedan hadn't detected the 45-year-old was veering off and righted the steering wheel. So when he found similar features in the cheaper Nissan Serena minivan, it was an easy choice. "Earlier you could only find such features in premium sedans but I have a big family and I want to make sure they are safe when we drive for a weekend getaway," Goto said on a recent visit to a Nissan showroom in Tokyo with his family. "I've become hugely interested in autonomous driving after that experience." At ¥3 million ($27,400), Nissan Motor's Serena minivan was the first model in Japan in its price bracket that offers what's known in the industry as "level 2" autonomous driving features, similar to what Tesla offers with its Autopilot function in the $80,000 Model S. A car with level 2 functionality can control steering and speed simultaneously without intervention for a short period, allowing the driver to take his hands off the wheel and foot off pedal at the same time. Nissan chose to debut its autonomous features in its mass-market model instead of the premium Infiniti brand, and the decision has paid off for the automaker.

Back in February, Nissan took a break from rolling out electric vehicle chargers to develop intelligent office chairs that pushed themselves in. It wasn't a new product, but a proof-of-concept stunt to demonstrate their assistive parking technology. But with new developments to show off comes a new seat demonstration. Sadly, you won't get a chance to buy this chair either. In the above video showing off their autonomous driving system ProPILOT, the seats hang out in line maintaining a safe distance from furniture ahead and behind.

Japanese auto manufacturer Nissan Motor Co unveiled to the media on July 12 its new self driving technology'ProPilot,' which assists the driver in maintaining speed during heavy traffic, changing lanes, and other driving maneuvers on a highway. Nissan's 2016 model Serena will be the first model to have the ProPilot technology, which is made possible by relatively simple technologies including a front-facing camera, an electronic parking break, and a 7-inch display monitor inside the car. "As part of the first step in (pursuing) our self driving technology called ProPilot, we are implementing the system into Serena. This is part of the company's roadmap, which in 2016 we begin implementing ProPilot (technology) that works within a single lane on highways," Nissan's Manager of Advanced driver assistance systems engineering department, Kiwamu Aoyanagi, said. By 2018, Nissan aims to have ProPilot be able to operate multiple lane changes, and by 2020, to be able to turn left and right at intersections.

Tesla has admitted that its autopilot feature was activated when one of its cars crashed on Sunday. However, the electric carmaker has suggested that the function was not being used correctly at the time. The motorist survived the accident, but another Tesla owner died in an earlier crash blamed on the driver-assist function failing to detect another vehicle in its path. Chief executive Elon Musk said Tesla had no plans to disable autopilot. However, he told the Wall Street Journal that his company would publish a blog highlighting how drivers should make use of the technology. He also tweeted that it was right that Tesla should be "taking the heat for customer safety".